WOYWW 308

Missed the last couple of WOYWW's so determined to get here today ...can ALMOST see the wood for the trees with the "must do" crafting and I got up early to finish the last batch of my ladies cards ... I made all my male, anniversary, memory cards for the whole of the year back in January but only got as far as the end of May with all my lovely lady friends ... so this last batch of 53 will take me to the end of the year.  

Just some rather large inked, spritzed and crackle glazed butterflies to attach and I have them done - a good way for me to work with so many cards I like to make each year and it will be a HUGE relief having them ready and waiting to send off when the time arrives!  I can't believe how fast May has come upon us this year ... did we have Jan, Feb, March & April then?

From big large massive butterflies to ones that are much smaller ... a sneaky peep at my ATC's for the WOYWW crop that seems to be hurtling towards us now ... not far off but I still have SO much to do in preparation ... at least my ATC's are done and bagged and in their little box ready to pack into my craft tote!  
I kinda, sorta hoped these little butterflies would look like leather - they kinda, sorta do but not nearly as much as I'd hoped ... but, hey-ho, no time to change them and start over again.  

Am not dreadfully pleased with the ATC's but they have been made and will be swapped with love and people can always chuck them away!!!

I hope to make keepsake tags again this year and have an idea forming in my head AT LAST and hope to get on them once those large butterflies are attached to their base cards.  Time will tell if my idea with work out!!!

So where was I ... oh yes, up early to Do Sticking ... Happy WOYWW'ing fellow deskers!

LUCY GREENHILL IS AMAZING!

Ok, ok, we all know Doing Technology is not my strong point.  

So why, oh why, did I try and do a new banner for my blog?

The lovely Shaz (Silverwolf) very kindly sent me a link on how to do it.

I managed to get my head around that bit but not the actual designing of it.

Silly Debbie.

My wonderful niece-in-law - the very talented photographer 
 LUCY GREENHILL
came to my rescue (she did my old banner too!) and worked her magic and I have a super new banner across the top of my blog.

THANK YOU SO MUCH LUCY

xXx

For Henry

Ooooh got lots of lovely cuddles with Henry this morning ... simply adore the little guy and what a blessing he is to our family!

Figured a little chap would not appreciate fairies so dragged myself away from my wooden hearts and grunge paste to make a canvas for him instead.

Wish I'd made the "bubbles" into balloons instead and gone with airplanes instead of farm animals ... I mean, DUH!!! just how many farm animals do you see flying amongst the clouds.  Great Auntie Debbie sure did have a senior moment here!

Branching out

Nope ... not a tree in sight!  The branching out refers to me pushing myself totally out of my comfort zone and using different colours!  

Have blogged many times about stuff done using my much loved browns & blues ... but they are not everyone's cup of tea so I figured I needed to broaden my horizons and experiment!

Still deciding if they work or not ... they are quite bright (for me!) and, of course, in real life they don't look anything like they do on the screen - arty nephew saw them in the flesh today and he liked the colours so I shall continue to experiment !!!!

A reminder of my preferred colours though ... just to give me the tingle I lacked with the blues & purples!

Welcome Henry

Our first Great Nephew ... the gorgeous bundle that is Henry ... arrived and so I made two of these - one for his parents and one for my Lil' Sis' whom, somehow, is now a Grandmother!!!!!  Still can't quite get my head around that one!

So, first things first ... here is darling little Henry ... too cute for words!

And I made the concertina cards I like to make for new babies ... knew all along what sort of card I would be making but had to wait to find out if it needed to be pink or blue!

Welcome darling Henry ... what joy you have brought to the family and huge

CONGRATULATIONS

Charlie & Hollie  

xXx

Clarity Challenge - Wee Folk

Whether or not I actually enter this month's challenge at CLARITY is yet to be decided but figured I'd blog my effort anyway as I did always intend my dear little blog to be a sort of diary or record of what I actually get up to during the week!

The theme this time round was simply "Wee Folk" and at first I instantly dismissed it as I couldn't think of a single idea.  Then, and I am sure you all know how it is, I had a teeny WEE spark (see what I did there!?!?!?!) of an idea and this is how it turned out ... nothing at all like I had hoped but am chasing my tail at the moment with oh so much to do and oh so little time in which to do it all.  But, hey, I Made The Effort and Had A Go!

All made using only Clarity stamps or stencils  ... the tree was made by using half of the Bird Tree stencil and then flipping it over and using the same half again as I only wanted the branches and not the half of the tree that is in full leaf. Oh and I masked off the birds too as I did not want them for this project.

The backgrounds were made using the process that I really love, love, love to do ... splodge your Distress Inks onto your craftmat and then spritz with water and swish and swoosh away with your card ... makes me tingle every time!

The spring blossom was a bit of a headache as my first plans did not show up enough and I was starting to get frustrated as I didn't think I had a suitable Clarity product I could use ... rummaging and rummaging through my stamps and stencils I came across the foliage stamp that accompanied the Boy & Birds stamp.  It still wasn't working so I just took my scissors and chopped a bit off and used just that ... can easily position it back in place should I ever need the stamp as a whole anytime.  But EEK!!!!!! I chopped up my stamp!!!!!

Stamped in Versamark and heat embossed using pink to give the effect of blossom.

The summer & autumn panels made using the same way ... again, had no little tiny leaf stamps I could use so squinted hard at all those I do and using just the trefoil leaf from Leafy Swirl did the trick.  

Had already splodged and splooshed the colours so just stamped onto the back of these and then spent a happy few moments minutes hours cutting the WEE (did it again!!!!!) little things out!

The winter panel was just Glamour Dust applied with a glue pen ... it really sparkles but doesn't show up at all here unfortunately.

SO the journey follows the seasons and goes from childhood through to needing a rest on a bench and the sentiment seemed to echo the Wee Folk stamps as a collection.

Out of my depth

Well, was sure out of my depth with this one and it took me three attempts to get anything I was even remotely happy with ... think it was the pink and pretty demographic that threw me!  

I don't do pink and pretty!

But FINALLY managed to come up with one of my wooden hearts - this time for a new little baby girl.

Managed to get a little grunge paste on there and then used the Wee Fairies from Claritystamp to hold the bubbles that contained the birth details ... like I said, totally out of my comfort zone but can live with it.

I think.