AYLI (DT) Favourite Markers Inks or Pencils

Morning all, and happy Thursday.  It's another new challenge over as AS YOU LIKE IT today, and it's a fun one.

We would like to know about your Favourite Markers, Inks or Pencils and why.

I've tried various types markers (personally, I like Copics the best) but when I discovered the Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Inks ReInkers for watercolouring I knew I had found MY happy medium.  Occasionally supplemented with pencils for fine detail because I'm not that clever, or patient, with a brush.

Love these little guys!  Stamping Bella Honeybear Stuffies

Watercoloured with DI ReInkers

Background papers are a mixture of Basic Grey and Doodlebug
Sentiment is Lili of The Valley

Not sure what has happened to my formatting today, text alignment and font choice are all over the place.

The sponsor of this challenge is

Prize - £10.00 Voucher

digistampboutique.co.uk catalog

digistampboutique blogspot

OK, you have two weeks to get colourful, just remember that you need to tell us why you used what you did.

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

You dig it?

There was some debate here at Squirrel Towers earlier in the Spring about what to put in the little bit of flowerbed we have by the shed.

Last year, we filled everything with flowers, which was very pretty, and Toad wanted to do the same again this year, but I dug my paws in (dug, geddit?) and suggested we grow a few veggies.  So, our tiny little bit of this earth is currently hosting a crop of sweetheart cabbages and patio peas.  

In fact, with a bit of luck, there might be some peas edible soon.  We're not picking them too early, I don't want green freckles on my dinner, but don't want to leave it too late either.

Anyway, this rambling leads me to this:

This dinky little card was made using one of the Vegetable Patch bunnies from Clearly Besotted

The sentiment is from an older CB set called Garden Fresh which I can't find on the website now so it looks like it's been retired

Papers are scraps of Nitwits

and yes, it's that MFT double stitched rectangle die again

Image painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers) and a small brush!

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Just Saying ........

I had been wanting to use this little girl by Mo Manning (stamp from Stamping Bella) again for quite some time, and I happened to locate her during a rummage yesterday.

I think this speaks for itself.

Stamping Bella (Mo Manning) image Big Girl Pants

Sentiment came with the image

Forever Friends Best of Britain papers

Poppystamps simple bunting die

Image painted with Distress Inks (ReInker) and Polychromos Pencils for her hair

Just saying.......

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Sweet Treats

I have a sweet tooth, it's well known and definitely evidenced by my waistline.  However, there was one sweet treat recently that is not edible (unless you are REALLY hungry), and has no calorie content

I couldn't resist this release from Clearly Besotted!

Sweet Treats can be found here

and there is a matching die set if you're interested

I coloured my little hamster/doughnut with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

and used a sentiment from the set

The paper is Dovecraft Back to Basics and I have edged it with a Lawn Farm

Stitched Scallop Edge die

Darker matting layer to bring the image panel forward

and that's it, simple but sweet

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Wild Things WINNER

Yoo-hoo!

A big thank you to all you wild crafters who entered the

SRC Wild Things challenge

Now it's time to choose the winner from all the FABULOUS entries

OK, to be fair, it was too difficult to choose just one so we enlisted the help of

Mr Random, and after cranking up the generator, he chose....

So No 13 is very lucky and the winner is

this stunning card

and that's you LUCY WOODS

Congratulations hunny - could you email me please and we'll get your prize organised.

Thanks to everyone who entered - brace yourselves as there will be a new and more

regular version of Squirrel's Random Challenge coming soon.  Watch this space for updates.

Hugs to all

Squirrel & The Little Acorns

xx

Last Day of Spring

Well, that's it, today is the last day of Spring, so tomorrow will be Hello Summer!  No, really, summer.  Days of endless blue skies, hot sun, ice-creams, school holidays, Wimbledon, strawberries and cream, wasps ....... honestly, Summer.

Anyhoo, to celebrate the final day of 2016's Spring, I'm bringing you this:

So, we have Spring Medley stamp from A Random Fan

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

The birthday words collage is from Hobby Arts

and the rubbish doodling is all mine

I was going to mask this little lady to stamp the words but in the end I fussy cut her

and laid her over the top to get the positioning how I wanted it

So, that's me for now,  I'm about to head outside into glorious sunshine.  Just where did I leave my umbrella, shower jacket and wellies .......

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Ahoy Matey!

It's Father's Day in the UK, and I had been wondering for quite some time what I would do for my darlin' dad this year.

After a rummage through my stamps, I came across this one and thought that it would make him laugh, and it did.

Stamp is Pirate Boy by one of my favourite Whimsy artists, Krista Heij-Barber

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Whimsy corner dies

Gingham paper from Create & Craft

Red cardstock is Bazzil

Custom made gatefold card base

Right then, it's European Grand Prix day and it's a new circuit which could be a bit

of a challenge - I'm off to get the inks out and watch the race!

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

AYLI (DT) Favourite Die

Hello everyone, hope this finds you well and itching to get crafty.  So, it is a new challenge day over at AS YOU LIKE IT and the theme this time is rather tricky......... we would like you to use your FAVOURITE DIE.

I think they should have renamed this challenge as Mission Impossible.  I started off with a huge pile of "favourite" dies on my desk, and gradually whittled them down by the number of times they have been used, and practicality.  They I got some back from the discarded pile, threw out (not literally) some others, started all over again, and I still couldn't narrow it down to just one favourite.  So, this is what you are getting

So, for this I have used

CC Designs Nancy With Sunflowers stamp

painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers) with a few Polychromos for her hair

I have used two Crealies stitched rectangle dies

I believe the word die is an Impression Obsession word edger die

and as for the top border .......... hmmmmm (missing packaging)

Matting layer is First Edition cardstock

I made this for a very special friend who has been having a tough time lately

but she has received it so it is now safe to post here.

Our sponsor for this challenge is

Bunny Zoe

£10.00

So now you can go and give yourselves the same kind of headache I had, but don't forget to enter the challenge to show us what you made!

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

And more elephants

There's a bit of a joke with a certain friend over a customer who wanted an elephant card.  Said customer is, fair enough, quite particular but not very forthcoming with information, so for her daughter in law's birthday I ended up with a surplus of elephant cards.......it took a few makes for her to choose one she really liked (which was nothing like the original brief!).

So when said certain friend's husband emailed me asked me to make his anniversary card to said friend, and he mentioned the elephants, it was a challenge I could not refuse.

I used the MFT Adorable Elephants stamp set, aren't they just the cutest?

The little twiddly heart between them is in the set too

Coloured with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Sentiment from Paper Smooches

Martha Stewart border punches, top and bottom

Purple papers are Nitwits and the pink is Dovecraft I think (but might not be)

I think said friend was happy, her husband certainly was

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Sports - LOTV reminder

Hi all, just dropping by with my second design team inspiration card for the Lili of The Valley June Facebook Challenge - not many days left now to enter so you need to get your skates on!

So this rather colourful card was made using

LOTV Water Babies Little Folk stamp

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

The rather loud papers are a mixture from various Basic Grey pads

The ornate oval frame is a Spellbinders die

And the lettering done with the Memory Box alphabet soup die set

Pre-scalloped card base

The challenge closes at 6.00pm on 15 June so better get busy if you want to be in with a chance of winning the fabulous prize.

That's the happy part of this post.

The sad part is that this will be my last ever post for the LOTV design team.

I was over-the-moon when I was asked to join the Design Collective last year, but nothing stays the same forever, and there have been a lot of changes, so, after a lot of careful thought and conscience wrestling, I decided it was time for me to step down.  Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to leave comments or visit me for my Lili posts, it wasn't a decision easily made but c'est la vie.

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Some News, A DT Call, and a Reminder

Yoo-hoo chaps, just popping by quickly to let you know some news.

The Squirrel Random Challenge is going to be less random - we (that is, myself and my team of Little Acorns) are planning on this becoming a regular event every two months.

This really is a challenge just for fun, but there will undoubtedly be some prizes up for grabs along the way.  I will post a schedule of when the challenges will be throughout the year, so please put those dates in your diaries.

Which brings us to an important matter - the Little Acorns will be looking for a new member to join

Annette

Jayne

Sue

Me, Squirrel

If you feel you would like to become part of this small but perfectly formed design team, we would like you to apply.  I have added a Linky thingie for you at the end of this post.

The closing date for DT applications will be 11 July.

You would need to have a blog, or an active Facebook page, on which to promote the challenge, and be able to take reasonable quality photos of your work.

We would ask you to make something for each challenge (one every two months) with a midway reminder on rotation.

Oh, and you must like chocolate and have a stash of cake handy.

I think that's it except for the

FINAL REMINDER FOR THE SRC WILD THINGS CHALLENGE

Closing date is this coming Friday - 17 June

Hugs to all

Squirrel and the Little Acorns

An InLinkz Link-up

In The Pink (DT) Photo Inspiration

Good morning pinkies!  How are you all today?  Feeling fine and dandy I hope.

For the new challenge over at IN THE PINK we would like you

to be inspired by a rather delicious photo

How you choose to be inspired is up to you, it could be simply cupcakes, it could be the colours (naturally we want more pink than anything else), it could be the flowers or the bows, lots to choose from

Here is my DT make

I was inspired by the cupcakes and the pink/cream colour theme

Isn't she sweet?  I was so chuffed with how she turned out.

This is CC Designs Roberto's Rascals Cupcake Twila

There are three sentiments with the image stamp, and this is one of them

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers) with Polychromos Pencils for her hair

Matted with a piece of pink Crafts Too paper

and finally finished off with a tiny Tapestry flower stamp dotted around the image panel

Our sponsor for this high calorie challenge is

THE RIBBON GIRL

We would love to see how the photo sparks your imagination, remember you have two weeks to enter and you must use pink!

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Flower Frenzy

At the weekend I hoiked out some of my under-used flower stamps as I wanted to make a batch of small cards to keep at work for emergencies.

I used two sets of stamps from Clearly Besotted "You Are Wonderful" and "Delightful Day".

Looking at these now, whilst I am pleased with how the colouring went, especially on the tulips and roses, I think next time I shall place them slightly lower down in the vase so they don't look like they are floating.

With apologies for the poor quality photos, these were taken on my phone and had to be tweaked in PIXLR.  My old Nokia takes much better photos but I didn't have it with me at the time.

All three stamps have been painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Matting layer from scraps box

Custom sized card bases

Has anyone else had really bad hay fever this year?  Normally I might snuffle for a few weeks, early on, but this time I have been sniffing and coughing for what feels like months!

Anyhoo, that's me done for today.  See you again on Thursday.

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Half Cat / Half Lizard

You can tell the weather has warmed up when the cat spends the whole weekend basking in the conservatory like a lizard.

OK, an upside down lizard.

And don't you believe the lies that tummy tells - that is not an invitation to fluff!

Hugs to all

Squirrel, and Rosie

xx

Man's Best Friend?

I hope I am never put in a position of having to choose between cats and dogs, it's not a choice I could probably ever make.  They both have their pro's and con's.  However, what is undisputed is that dogs are always considered to be man's best friend. Thankfully my best friend doesn't drool on my slippers, and she's not a dog either!!

Anyhoo, there is a Man's Best Friend challenge over at Fantasy Stampers so as I already had a suitable stamp out on my craft bench I shall take my chances and enter.

So, this is Harley from Whipper Snapper Designs

(available at My Mum's Craft Shop here)

Painted in Distress Inks (ReInkers)

with a Personal Impressions sentiment

and bright stripy paper from a Papermania collection

the yellow gingham is from the scraps box

Hope your Sunday is as sunny as Harley's seems to be.

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

SRC Wild Things Challenge Reminder

There are two weeks left for you to enter the Squirrel's Random Challenge of Wild Things - there haven't been that many entries so far so anyone who does have a go is in with a very good shout of winning a fabulous prize.

As a reminder of what the challenge is about, it's anything wild - animals, plants, weather, party people - so there is plenty of scope to play with.

Here is my reminder card

That talented photographer, Squinty McSquint, has been busy again

So, a CAS layout from me

A Whimsy stamp from Krista Heij Barber called Hanging In There

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Sentiment from Clearly Besotted

Matting layer is from a Dovecraft Christmas collection!

I go ages with hardly any postings at all, and suddenly you get two in one day, you can tell the computer has been fixed, ha ha!

Right then, off you go and have a wild weekend, but please do enter it into the challenge.

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Sports! Lili of The Valley FB Challenge

Hi all, if you haven't seen it already, there is a new challenge running over on the Lili of The Valley Facebook page for June, and the theme is Sports

Lots of the Lili stamps feature sports, or can be adapted to be sporty, so although this seems like a more difficult challenge than usual, it's really not that bad.

My first design team make for inspiration features a retired image......

I love this little karate kid, and I don't know why I haven't used him more often

I think I had it stuck in my head that his outfit had to be white, but I did some research and it doesn't!

The colours I have used are student colours - painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Papers are leftovers from my scraps box

and white cardstock edged with a yellow Copic marker

and I really should stop removing my sentiment sets from their packaging!

So, be a sport, join in the challenge - the ball's in your court

Challenge closes at 6.00pm on 15 June

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

AYLI (DT) Favourite Food or Drink

Hello chaps - it's another Thursday, and that means another new challenge from

AS YOU LIKE IT

This time the challenge theme is FAVOURITE FOOD OR DRINK

(and you must tell us about your choice)

Here is my DT make

Oh I do like me grubs, but I find nothing perks me up more than a delicious coffee, hot if the weather is cold, or iced if it is a really hot day.  My current addiction is a Costa Flat White (other brands are available)

So, for this I have used

Image stamps from Your Next Stamp - Hammie: Coffee and Tea

and the die word is Your Next Stamp - Fancy Coffee Die

Happiness is a good... sentiment and the coffee beans from

Sugar Pea Designs Espresso Yourself

Papers are BoBunny Double Dots

Image painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Our sponsor for this challenge is

Dies to die for

Prize - £15 voucher

I very nearly resigned my DT position so that I could enter the challenge and try and win this prize!

Right then, it's over to you to go and get delicious - looking forward to seeing your makes.

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx