Flowers are Forever...

How many of you have been with me on my journey from my very first card way back in 2015? Can you remember when I joined The Flower Challenge? A card making challenge set up by one of my very earliest card making buddies, Aileen. Well, don't be shocked when I tell you it was 7 years ago. Truly it is because this month they are having a challenge and a celebration as Aileen and Viv retire.

I was touched when Viv emailed me to ask me to join in with this challenge. I've hardly been in touch and it has been nearly 2 years since I last blogged anything, but I couldn't say no.

I've been getting back in to card making, mostly thanks to my friend Kylie who lives a 20 minute walk from me and is a Stampin' Up demonstrator. I've got back into going to her monthly card classes and now that I'm gainfully employed in retail with a regular salary again, I've been saving up for some new purchases. Watch this space for more cards to come!

This challenge is Anything Goes, which can be a double edged sword really with having to decide without any restrictions and that means endless possibilities with a whole host of stamps I could use. In the end I decided to use the Sweet Floral Friends stamp set from Clearly Besotted to make a couple of Good Luck cards.

In my usual style it's pretty simple with an image coloured using Copic markers popped up on foam pads onto a white background and a coloured card base. I do love the Stampin' Up card stock for their vibrant colours. The sentiment is from the set.

So this is a way for me to say to Aileen and Viv, Thank You for giving me the opportunity 7 years ago to join a great team, I'm glad that it's still around and going strong and Good Luck to you stepping down and to Karren taking on the mantle of leadership.

I hope you'll join in, after all, Anything Goes!

Happy Crafting, Ruth x

It's not easy being green...

My goodness me it's been a while since I blogged here; April 2020 to be precise! A lot has happened since then. We've been in and out of lockdown, we've now got a vaccine, but we also have various new variants. Which brings me onto my card. Variants. Not of the virus kind. 

Given all we went through in 2020, I expected to be feeling a lot more positive coming into 2021 with the vaccine, but another lockdown, another round of home schooling, bubbles bursting, and just more uncertainty has taken its toll on me since January. I've really struggled mentally this year so far.

One thing that has been getting me through various trials are the recent Marvel TV series on Disney+. From WandaVision, to Falcon and the Winter Soldier, both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. My latest obsession and by far my favourite, however, is the recently finished, Loki. If you're a fan, you'll get the reference to variants...

It's polarised quite a lot of Marvel fans, but with some fabulous and very engaging performances by the main characters, Tom Hiddleston, Sophia Di Martino and Owen Wilson, a brilliant score and writing, I loved it. Thankfully there will be a Season 2 sometime in the next 18 months, so the cliff hanger ending will get resolved - I hope... I highly recommend for some escapism in trying times, even if it at times isn't so cheery!

I was going through my card making stash, and having a bit of a clear out - some eBaying may be on the horizon - and found in my scrap box, this image of an MFT Viking that I stamped onto some watercolour card ages ago. The stamp is no longer available by the look of things, so I will be hanging onto it. Given Loki is from the Viking myths and legends, it was clearly a sign to use him up at last.

I got my Faber Castell Polychromos Pencils out and spend a happy few minutes colouring him in. It's not quite the fine Asgardian leather that Loki wears in the TV series, but you can't have everything, right? I don't have the die to go with him, so I simply fussy cut and kept him very simple on a green card base with a white background. With coloured images I find simple is best.

I made the card base out of some lovely green cardstock from Stampin' Up, and I ended up with two card bases, so I just carried on and made another simple card with a wax seal I bought from my lovely Etsy buddy Karen. She makes and sells wax seals that you just have to peel and stick to your card - I can get embellishments without the added need to buy more crafty paraphernalia.

Simply done, with some added sequins from Lucy's cards - I have so many and it was hard to part with them, so I'm using them up! - and I have two cards and had a very enjoyable session whilst the children played outside. A win win for everyone.

I hope you have managed to stay sane as much as you can since last April when I last posted, and I hope to be back here a bit more regularly, as I've found card making at least once a month, can really help. Keep going, it's all we can do!

Clearly Besotted Mr Mole

Here we are in Week 3 and the odd thing is it's starting to feel normal! Hope you are still bearing up. Without further ado, here's my card....

  I've had these stamps for a while and one evening a few weeks ago, along with a whole load of things, I decided to colour them in. I struggled to get the right browns, but I did a lot of blending and came up with something that seemed to work!

I'm enjoying making all things sunshine and rainbows at the moment, so I decided Mr Mole would be popping out of the ground to look at the glorious sunshine. He might have bad eyesight, but he can still make out when it's lovely and sunny.

The sun is keeping me going and it's almost Easter, so the sun is bringing a whole load of hope to the world.

A quick one from me today, but sending you all the requisite virtual hugs and a reminder in these times to keep on crafting :)

Sending you sunshine, with a bit of extra news!

Gosh we could do with lots of sunshine at the moment! What a different route life has taken us over the past couple of weeks. I was adjusting to having the girls around and they were adjusting to being around, but not able to go out and see their friends, so I didn't manage to post anything last week. 

Week 2 of social isolation is going slightly better. I have closed the Etsy shop for the time being as I'm not comfortable going out to the post office. I may in a few weeks reopen and do weekly post office drops. I'm also more into a routine with the children and negotiating some time for me with my husband. As he's the main bread winner and can work from home, it's best for him to do that for as long as possible.

I'm missing the person to person contact, but ironically I've also decided now is the time to reduce my time on Facebook. There is just too much on it for me at the moment and it's all whirling round my head and I just sit and flick and it gets me nowhere. I still have both my Instagram accounts Crafting While the Baby Naps and Ruth's Reusable Products, and I prefer that for interaction. 

So that's my news. How are you all bearing up? 

Card! So I've had this set for ages. It's an old MFT set called Sunflower Sweetheart which they re-released in 2019. Someone very kindly sent it to me along with the dies. I didn't use them, as they are the old closed dies and I didn't want to mistakenly chop bits off I'd spent ages colouring, so after colouring her with Copic markers, I fussy cut her. Nearly chopped her head off in the process, but managed not to! 

She's just simply adhered to a card base along with some frames I cut out of patterned paper and the sentiment has been stamped along the bottom.

Wishing you all the best of things at the moment. Stay safe. Stay home. Stay sane and Keep On Crafting!

Forty shades of Green....

...in one card! Well not quite, but as it's St Patrick's Day and I am half Irish and I have this funky leprechaun in my stash, I decided I had to colour him up in as many of my G and BG Copics as I could. Turns out I don't have as many as I thought I did!

Paddy here is from Paper Smooches and was a gift from an Irish friend who I've known for a ridiculously long time (ever since Uni days!) and who, despite living miles apart, we still manage to meet up and talk like we only saw each other yesterday!

So he's in all the greens and blue-greens I own, stopping short at his face and hands and teeth - if anyone knows any good combos for teeth I'll take it, as he looks like he's smoked one too many. I added some green Spica pen to his shoes and beard because I wanted to. You can't really see it without tilting it, it's so subtle.

I found a green card base in my stash and some glitter paper which I cut out with a Memory Box postage stamp die so he wouldn't get lost on the green background.  

  However you're getting on amid all this chaos and weirdness with Covid-19, have a great St Patrick's Day and know you can and you will be OK :)

Happy Crafting Everyone!

Hello....

... is it me you're looking for? Well I hope so! Here's another of these long lost panels that I rediscovered while going through my box of unused coloured stuff, or BUCS (in tribute to Darnell's NBUS!).

This one has only taken a year to get onto a card, so not quite as bad as last week's.... I wanted it to pop against the background, but also be sympathetic to the colours of the greys. They are ALL the Copic grey tones - N, T, W and C - so you can see the difference in them all.

I used some coloured paper I've had stashed away for 5 years and cut the panels to layer it up.

I'm linking this up to my old challenge The Flower Challenge, which Aileen set up and I see going from strength to strength. The theme this month is Anything Goes, which is just perfect for me. 

The lovely Viv did a very nice post about some of my wipes, which I custom made in some gorgeous Tilda floral hummingbird fabric. Thank you for your kind words Viv!

Hope you're having a good week so far. The sun has been shining and it's been nice to get out and about without getting damp.

Thanks for popping by and Happy Crafting Everyone!

Ruth xx

How are you?

I'm fine, how are you? I actually completely forgot I coloured this in. Two years ago. Yes, two years ago! I met up with some lovely crafty friends one weekend in Birmingham and had a lovely time stamping and colouring. We mostly did talking, but I stamped a few images and coloured them in and never made them into cards. Well now is the time! 

With my business all about reducing waste, it was high time I went through my scrap box and pulled out this panel which I'd coloured with Copics all that time ago. I wanted to practice highlights and shading. I'm not too sure how successful I've been, but I enjoyed using some of the grey-blues in my collection. The stamp is from Simon Says Stamp.

I'm really enjoying revisiting my card making and getting a bit of a stash going again. Always useful when you're reminded it's someone's birthday or you just need to send a Hello.

Thank you for visiting as always. Keep crafting!

Ruth xx