Love You a Latte, Foxy

How many adulting points to I get for defrosting the freezer and descaling the kettle? I'd say at least enough to not do anything but eat cake and craft for the rest of the weekend!

I can't believe I almost missed out on the current Lawn Fawnatics challenge where the theme is Create a Scene. And what better than a fall scene with a little bit of coffee for the Fall Coffee Lovers Blog Hop as well! Last, but not least I'm also linking up with Daring Cardmakers, where the theme is 4 Of Something (4 trees and 4 leaves). 

Card: 250 gsm white card, Neenah Solar White card, scrap of dark brown card
Patterned Paper: Lawn Fawn Perfectly Plaid Fall, Let's Polka, Let's Polka in the Dark, Watercolour Wishes
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal and matching dies, Holiday Party Animal, Love You A Latte
Ink and Colouring: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Dies: Lawn Fawn Stitched Tree Border Dies, Scalloped Rectangle Stackables, Stitched Rectangle Stackables, Grassy Border, Stitched Hillside Border, Spring Showers, Stitched Leaves

First Christmas Card of the Year

Compared to last year, I'm late getting started with my Christmas cards this year. But luckily there is still almost nine months to go, and to be honest, I really don't send that many cards, so I should still be fine. I think I even have a few cards left over from last year to be honest. 

Today's card was inspired by the current Lawnscaping challenge where the theme is to include something sweet on your card. I thought I would use the adorable Party Animal and some Christmas goodies from Holiday Party Animal. It's all very simple to be honest, I coloured the stamped images with Copics and die cut with matching dies. Then it was just a question of die cutting the tag from Let's Bokeh in the Snow paper and some vellum snow using the Stitched Hillside Border dies. I stamped the sentiment using the Happy Everything stamp set and die cut a panel from the red Let's Bokeh in the Snow paper. I'm also linking up my card with Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where the theme is "We can see clearly now" (use something clear, like acetate or vellum), Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge where the theme is to use a sentiment, Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge Extra where anything goes and Sweet Stampin' Christmas where the theme is Cute Christmas.

Card: white 300 gsm textured card, Neenah Solar white card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal and Holiday Party Animal and matching dies, Happy Everything
Ink and Colouring: Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Let's Bokeh in the Snow paper, Stitched Hillside Border, Stitched Rectangles and Tag You're It dies

Happy Birthday from Fox and Hedgehog

I really am good at procrastinating, so I spent a lot of time in the craft room this weekend as I really would have needed to clean the house. This is another card I made while feeling guilty about all the dishes piled up in my kitchen. I did end up cleaning a few rooms after making this card so fear not, I won't drown in filth. Just wishing the weekends would last longer so I would have more crafting time. I will do my best to leave work on time at least one day this week, so hopefully I will manage some more crafty time soon!

This card was inspired by the tag over at Tag You're It. I loved the cute fox and hedgehog on the inspiration tag, so I thought I would make my own tag with a cute Lawn Fawn fox and hedgehog. My other inspiration was the sketch over at Retrosketches which worked perfectly with the tag theme and the colours over at Chocolate Baroque challenge. I'm also linking up with Daring Cardmakers where the theme is to use a resist technique. 

Card: 300 gsm textured card, Hobbycraft 190 gsm white card

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Bokeh In the Snow, Let's Polka

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Sending Hedgehugs, Party Animal and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Inks Festive Berries, Mustard Seed, Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade

Colouring: Copics

Other: Lawn Fawn Tag You're It and Stitched Rectangle dies

Party Animals on a Rainbow Watercolour Background

If you look up #domesticgoddessfail in the dictionary, you will most likely see a picture of our house. It's quite incredible how you stop seeing the mess when you come home late in the evening and get up early in the morning and never see your home in daylight. Then the weekend hits and you see the mess but you are too tired to really care. I read all these wonderful food and lifestyle blogs about people who live in spotless designer houses and spend their days arranging flowers. I spy with my little eye two small flower vases on top of one of our snake-vivs with flowers long dead. As in dead and gone. That's how bad it is! Could someone please just hug me and tell me it will all get better? At least I have taken down the Christmas decorations (ok, that's an exaggeration as in fact the Culinary Consultant dismantled most of them), but the box is still in the living room, waiting to be taken up to the loft. So the sad fact is that today I will have to focus on cleaning, although I would much rather spend my time in the craft room. Isn't it funny how all you want is to be an adult when you are a child - just imagine you could do whatever you want. And yes, you could just sit on the sofa and eat candy all day in theory... but of course we all know that's not how it goes.

Anyhow, before I grab my trusty Dyson Animal, I want to show you the card I made yesterday while procrastinating and mentally scolding myself for crafting instead of cleaning. It's inspired by the Party Animal themed challenge over at Daring Cardmakers and with a theme like that I couldn't resist grabbing the cute little Lawn Fawn stamp set called very appropriately - yes, you guessed it - Party Animals. I wanted to make a watercolour rainbow background, so I grabbed a bunch of Tim Holtz Distress Markers and a waterbrush and then spritzed some water droplets to create a distressed look. I stamped the critters in Memento Tuxedo Black ink onto Neenah Solar card and coloured them with Copics before die cutting with matching dies. I'm all about rainbow colours at the moment, cheers me up when it's grey and dreadful outside (although I have to admit the sun is currently shining, and boy does that feel nice!). I'm linking up my little animals with Just Add Ink where the theme is Just Add V (obviously aimed at Valentine's day, but I chose to add Wilted Violet distress ink [that's the one in the lower right corner of the background] as well as very happy creatures [does that count?]), Challenge Up Your Life where the theme is No Designer Paper (easy for me, as I love to hoard DSP but never use it, go figure...), Creative Knockouts where the theme is Furry Friends and last but not least Brown Sugar where the theme is Favourite Colour Combo (yes, I proclaim that rainbow is a colour combo). I can't wait for all the crafting challenges to move on from the omnipresent Valentine's day theme for us not so romantically inclined!! 

Card: 300 gsm white card, 190 gsm watercolour card, Neenah Solar white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal and  Holiday Party Animal with matching dies
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz Distress Markers, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies

Happy Birthday Bear

My dear Culinary Consultant is not the most romantic person in the world. He's not big on small talk, actually not big talk also. But he is the kindest guy and from time to time he does something so sweet that I start to think he might be a bit of a closet romantic. Like yesterday when I was fretting about going back to work in a mix of depression and anxiety. And then I finally admit defeat and realise the holiday is over, and head over to go to bed. And what do I find on the bed? A box of goodies from L'Occitane! Apparently it's a going back to work present. How perfect is that? Going back to work was horrible though but at least the first day is now done and dusted. Maybe tomorrow will be a bit easier?

Today's card is almost exclusively put together from things in my UFO box (you know, UnFinished Objects...). The background journalling card is from a session when I was getting messy with a rainbow of Distress Paints. This is one I created towards the end, when a lot of the colours had already run together and became a brownish mess, which I originally didn't like but now when I looked at it again, I liked the way the clear bright colours mix together with the browns. The bear was also in the UFO box, I just stamped, coloured and die cut some birthday paraphernalia for him. The sentiment was - can you guess? - also in the UFO box, it is die cut from some card I created at another time when playing with my Distress Paints. Even the strip of Let's Polka paper is a leftover scrap piece. If you are a hoarder of all crafty bits great and small you know how good a card like this feels!

I am linking up with the following challenges:

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Party

Craft Your Passion - Anything Goes

Dragonfly Journey - They Say It's Your Birthday

Fashionable Stamping Challenge - Make Your Own Background

Stamping Sensations - Anything Goes With a Die(s)

Crafty Hazelnut's Patterned Paper Challenge - Use Patterned Paper

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Various Tim Holtz Distress Paints, Copics

Dies: Lawn Fawn Scripty Congrats, Stitched Journalling Card

Detachable tag Christmas card

I have been reading a book called The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I might have mentioned it some previous blog posts. It's quite interesting, and as opposed to many other books that talk more about the mindset and very elusive and abstract, this book has a lot of very practical and hands on ideas of increasing happiness in your life. One of the ones I have really taken to is reducing clutter and "stuff" in general. I have been going through my wardrobes, my random cupboards and trying to let go of things. Another idea I have read about in blogs relating to the same line of thinking is that we hold on to a lot of things just because we think we ought to. I'm not saying we shouldn't hold on to things that truly have sentimental value, of course we should, but I'm questioning whether we need to hold onto every single card we get sent for example. I have it in the back of my mind that it's somehow an obligation to hang on to them, and I have gone through a lot of my old birthday and Christmas cards, hanging on to those that I really find I have a sentimental connection to but getting rid of those that I feel I only keep "because I'm supposed to". This is such an interesting idea, I could go on about it for pages and pages. Particularly as this house is inhabited by another person who is very sentimentally attached to even the smallest things. It's quite interesting that my Mum is very minimalist, and she works hard to get rid of clutter, whereas the family of my dearest are very much sentimentally attached to a lot of things, so I think our attitude to how to connect with material possessions is strongly linked to the behaviour of our parents.

Anyhow, this got me thinking of my Christmas cards. Are people hanging onto them just because they feel they have to? Is there anything I can do to help them enjoy the thought that I have put into the cards, but then let go of them? Maybe there would be a way to get people to recycle the cards? And then the current, very ingenious sketch over at CAS(E) This Sketch gave me an idea (I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of this, but I can't point to any specific inspiration where I would have seen this done). What if I make the tag detachable, and encourage people to use it for a gift. Then the remains are much easier to dispose of, as it's no longer a "proper" card. Plus there is the added benefit of recycling some of the materials, and hopefully bringing some joy to yet another person as well. 

The card without the tag and the reverse side of the tag.

For this card, I started by die cutting the tag using a die from Lawn Fawn Tag You're It from the purple paper from Let's Polka in the Dark. I stamped the matching tag onto red paper from the same collection, and fussy cut it to match the tag. Then I stamped the adorable little reindeer from Party Animal and added the gingerbread man and christmas hat from Holiday Party Animal, die cut with the matching dies and coloured with Copics. I die cut the Merry using the Merry Christmas border die from gold mirri card and stamped the smallest "Christmas" I could find in my stamp stash (it's from Stampin' Up Endless Wishes). I also stamped a greeting and some small images on the back of the tag in case the recipient of the card chooses to use it as intended.

I think next time I will edit the text to start "I would love it if
you wanted to recycle the tag" instead.

For the background, I brushed water onto watercolour cardstock I had cut using the Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies. Then I added Tim Holtz Festive Berries and Seedless Preserves ink and blended them together. I also flicked some colour splotches using my watercolour brush. I really love playing with these watercolour backgrounds lately. I also heat embossed some gold speckles onto the background, although unfortunately it doesn't show very well in the picture. Then all that was needed was to attach the tag using a few small glue dots which I had "de-stickyfied" between my fingers so that the tag will pop off easily. I also added some twine, again it's detachable so it can be used to tie the tag to a present. I absolutely love this idea, and feel a bit bummed I have already created more cards than I need for Christmas. Oh well, next Christmas everyone is getting a detachable tag card from me, be pre-warned!

In addition to linking up with CAS(E) This Sketch, I would like to enter the Christmas Challenge over at Happy Little Stampers where the theme is Tag. I'm also playing along over at Time Out where the theme is Christmas Card with purple or pink. Last but not least there are a few Christmas themed blogs that inspired today's card, so I would like to link up with Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas Challenge where the theme is Bright Colours, the lovely Jingle Belles where the theme is Holiday food (talking about Gingerbread as it's my chosen Christmas food... did I tell you I got an alpaca cookie cutter when we went to the alpaca show last weekend? Can anyone say alpaca gingerbread for Christmas? Yaaay!!! To be honest, I really like reindeer as well, although given the cute fellow on the card, that's probably a bit morbid. If you haven't tried it, I would warmly recommend if you ever get a chance, but maybe not at Christmas...) and ABC Christmas Challenges where the theme is V is for Very Cute.  

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Whisper White card, gold mirri card

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka in the Dark

Stamps: Lawn Faw Party Animal, Holiday Party Animal, Thank You Tags, (&matching dies for all Lawn Fawn stamp sets), Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge and Endless Wishes

Ink: Tsukineko Versamark and Memento Tuxedo Black, Tim Holtz distress inks Seedless Preserves, Festive Berries

Colouring: Copics

Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Merry Christmas border die, Tag You're It dies, red and white bakers twine from my stash

Get well soon

Just a very quick post today to publish a cute card I made earlier. I guess spending several days at home with a cold inspires you to make a get well soon card... I have created this card for the current Lawnscaping challenge where the theme is "Thinking of You". I thought the cute little party animals carrying a hot cuppa and a heart would be perfect to cheer up someone who isn't feeling well. The layout was inspired by the sketch over at CAS on Sunday, and the colours by this week's ColourQ. 

I started by brushing some water onto watercolour card that I had cut with a stitched die. I then added some Tim Holtz distress inks in Picked Raspberry and Mermaid Lagoon, and angled the card all different ways to spread the inks and make the blend. I also splattered some ink around on the card base. I stamped the cute little critters onto white cardstock, coloured with Copics and die cut using the matching dies. I stamped the sentiment in black, and attached the critters to the watercoloured panel. I created the background by stamping the Thinking About You sentiment multiple times onto the cardstock, and adhered the front panel using foam tape.

Card: 300 gsm white card, 300 gsm watercolour paper
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal, Holiday Party Animal and matching dies, Scripty Sayings
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Basic Gray, Tim Holtz distress inks Picked Raspberry, Mermaid Lagoon
Colouring: Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies

Happy Birthday from the Party Animals

Well it's been pouring with rain all day today. What a shame,  I was so looking forward to going for a run (I hope the sarcasm comes through even though you can't hear the intonation in my voice or my expression...). Instead I have been more or less locked up in my craft room all day. Not a bad way to spend the day at all! 

Today's card is inspired by the current CAS(E) this Sketch and ColourQ. Im also linking up with Stamping Sensations where anything goes as long as it has a stamping, Simply Create Too where the theme is Special Occasion and Addicted to Stamps where the theme is CAS. This is quickly becoming yet another favourite Lawn Fawn set. I created the background by making a square mask from some scrap paper, coloured the Stampin' Up Brushstrokes stamp using markers and stamped through the mask. I coloured the critters using Copics and die cut them using the matching dies. Last, I created a sentiment using the Happy Birthday border die from a scrap piece of turquoise card, and die cut the front panel using Stitched Rectangles dies.

Card: White 300 gsm card, white 300 gsm linen textured card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animals and matching dies, Stampin' Up Brushstrokes
Ink and colouring: Stampin' Write markers Bermuda Bay, Wisteria Wonder, Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Copics
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle dies, Happy Birthday border die

White embossing in a twisted citron kind of way

I have been contemplating my crafting lately. In fact, I have been contemplating more than crafting, which I'm sure is the wrong way around. I've been contemplating the justification of putting as much money into this hobby as I have in the last few years. I have been contemplating Facebook and other services constantly telling me I should grow my blog, advertise it, reach out to get more followers. But I don't want to! I'm perfectly happy doing this as a hobby, and I am not the type of person who wants to push my blog anywhere it doesn't want to go naturally. I just want Facebook to leave me alone, stop showing me those horrible "advertise your blog here" things. They stress me out. I have been contemplating whether my cards have "a look". Whether my cards would be recognisable as my cards. I have started to feel that after more than two years of crafting I have started to find my own look, at least in my head. It's all about watercolours and bright colours and cute critters and die cut sentiments and stitched die cuts and clean and simple designs. Most of the time. I think. At least that's how it's all in my head. Anyhow, they are my cards so if I say I have a look, that must be how it is. Right? Oh well, I take myself way too seriously most of the time.

I didn't take this birthday card too seriously though. I just stamped and watercoloured and had fun with the little Lawn Fawn party stamps. Too bad it was quite tricky to photograph, and it does look much better live than it does in the picture. I seem to have the crafting bit down a bit better than the photography bit.

I was inspired by the embossing challenge over at Lawnscaping.  I was also inspired by this weeks Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge where the theme is Citrus with a twist, which made me choose some very uncharacteristic colours for me. I was also inspired by the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. FMS is celebrating the 200th sketch with a major, major challenge and a huge amount of sponsor prizes. Happy 200th FMS, and here's to many more!

I stamped a mix of the small party stamps from the Lawn Fawn Party Animal set in Versamark onto watercolour paper (I have to start buying that stuff in bulk!) which I had die cut with a Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle die and heat embossed them in white powder. Then I took Tim Holtz distress markers in Squeezed Lemon, Twisted Citron, Pistachio Pudding and Peacock Feathers and smudged them onto a clear block. I picked up the ink with a watercolour brush and just played around to create the background. I die cut the sentiment from a leftover piece of coloured paper I had created with Tim Holtz distress paints for my crazy bird and doughnut card here. I then double heat embossed the sentiment with holographic powder before attaching onto the card. I attached the coloured panel with foam pads onto some linen textured card. For a little subtle bling, I added a few sequins in the same colour scheme as the card. I hope you like the card as much as I do, it's simple but I have to say it turned out quite nice, didn't it. Oh well, I'm off now to enjoy bread week on the Great British Bakeoff!

Card: 300 gsm white linen textured card, Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper
Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal
Ink: Versamark, Tim Holtz Squeezed Lemonade, Pistachio Pudding, Twisted Citron and Peacock Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle and Happy Birthday border dies, sequins from my stash, Papermania Seafoam White and Holographic embossing powder

Longing for minimalism

I have been thinking a lot about all my stuff lately. Living in a big house, it's so easy to just accumulate stuff. Most of it completely unnecessary (and note that I'm not including my crafty stash in this discussion, it's another topic). My Mum has gone through a big phase of getting rid of things. Just things that you hang onto although they aren't important. My partner is a hoarder. He can't get rid of anything. Me, I'm slowly starting to come around to the thought of less is more. I have sold some of my clothes on eBay, just stuff I know I will never fit into again. Next I need to do the same with shoes, you know those shoes that are so pretty but at the same time so incredibly uncomfortable and you know they will never be worn again. And what about DVDs? I never watch DVDs anymore. If I want to watch something, I will stream it. But at the same time, I have a nagging thought at the back of my mind reminding me of how much money I have spent on all the things I own. It seems wasteful to get rid of them. But then you stop and think - are these things important? Do they make me happy? Would I miss them if I got rid of them? And the answer is very clear.

I did a bit of cleaning today, just some cupboards full of stuff that I threw in there when we moved into the house, and have not thought about since. After some re-arranging I found that I have over 30 bottles of various hair styling products. And I'm a wash and brush type of gal, I maybe use one product here and there but I think I have enough hair styling products until I die... I have 10 bottles of toothpaste. This is because I bring Finnish toothpaste with me whenever I go home. Let's not get into it, it's just better... But I didn't realise I already have a huge stash, I just keep adding to it. This is the trouble with stashing things. You will lose sight of what you have and just add to it. I'm so incredibly annoyed with myself for letting this happen. Again, it's not things I will throw away as they will be useful eventually, but I will work hard on not adding anything to my huge stash of stuff until I know what I have and I will make sure I will try to use them all up before I buy new things. 

Anyhow, my card today is also a bit minimalistic. I had an idea in my head, and the card didn't quite turn out as I wanted it, but I can't quite put my finger on what went wrong. I was browsing Pinterest earlier and got a horrible inferiority complex. All those gorgeous cards out there that I wish I had made. And then my stuff turns out a bit... naff. Oh well, all you can do is practice, practice and practice even more. Maybe one day!

I made a shaker card using all the little birthday related things in Lawn Fawn's Party Animal set. It's one of those thin shaker cards so the things inside the shaker don't move around very much. It's so that it can easily be posted. 

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Lawnscaping - Inspired by Colour
CAS(E) This Sketch - Sketch #133
Sisterhood of the Snarky Stampers - S is for Shaker
Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Sparkle and Shine

Card: 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, acetate

Paper: Lawn Fawn Let's Polka

Stamps: Lawn Fawn Party Animal and matching dies

Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black

Colouring: Copics, Tim Holtz Distress markers

Other: Lawn Fawn Happy Birthday border die, Ranger Ice Stickles, Stitched Circle dies, Stitched Rectangle dies