Clove Coffee?

I don't like the flavour of cloves that much.  They always remind me of having toothache.  Readers of a certain age will probably feel the same way.  Got a toothache?  Out would come the bottle of clove oil.  Blecch.

Anyhoo, this Clove is much nicer .....

It was a friend's husband's birthday yesterday, and being a lover of a certain UK coffee chain (you should be able to guess by the cup colour), this is what I made him - and attached a Gift Card from that certain coffee store to the inside.

CC Designs - Rustic Sugar Clove With Coffee

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Papers were magazine freebies

Coffee cup is CC Designs Cutters latte die

Die-Namics double stitched rectangle

Sentiment from MFT Perk Up set

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

It's Behind You!

Hello peeps.  I have been playing with dies, stamps and masking this afternoon.

This ended up being a bit of an MFT-fest

Stamped images from the MFT Merry Everything set, and masked together

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

MFT Stitched scalloped circle frame die

MFT Square grid cover up die

Sentiment from MFT Holiday Subway Art set

Papers and card are Dovecraft and Hobbycraft

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Christmas Decorations

At my old job, I had an office to myself.  On 1st December, all the tinsel, lights, Santas and other Christmas tat would come out and be spread liberally around the room.  However, at my new job I share an office with 4 other girls and I have a "cubicle".  It's bijou.  So there isn't much room for the normal Squirrel over-the-top deccies.  But there is enough room on my cubby hole walls for me to pin up some home made decs!

OK, so this banner started as an idea for a full MERRY CHRISTMAS banner with one letter per flag.  Then I realised how much work was involved.  So now it is a three panel job!

I have used

MFT BB Jingle All The Way, and Santa's Elves stamps

and the Deck Halls Sentiment from the MFT Holiday Subway Art set

Banner dies are Lawn Fawn

Papers are Dovecraft and red card from stash

Cropodile eyelets and some leftover narrow ribbon

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

AYLI (DT) Old Stash v New Stash

Morning all - it's Thursday so it's time for a new challenge with the AS YOU LIKE IT team!

Our theme this time is

NEW STASH or OLD STASH

which do you prefer to use, please remember to tell us what and why!

I am finding these challenges a real, a-hem, challenge lately

So, for me, I love playing with new stash stamps and dies, I get inspired by what I can do with them, and excited by the possibilities but I mix it up a bit with old stash papers as I have such a hoard of them.  I love new papers too, but by the time I have finished stroking and sniffing them, they have turned into old stash, lol.

Here's my DT make

So, for this one I have used

(new) Stamping Bella - Edna Needs A Martini including sentiment

(old) Distress Inks (ReInkers)

(new) MFT Die-Namics Dainty Dots

(old) Dovecraft Back To Basics Bright Spark papers

The ingredients therefore make this a 50/50 card!

Our sponsor for the challenge is

Prize - £10.00 Voucher

digistampboutique.co.uk catalog

digistampboutique blogspot

so all the more reason to pop on over and share your makes with us

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Merry Everything

Now, I am not the most confident person in the world, my friends will vouch for that.  What I do mostly is bluff.  As Hilary Mantel said of Thomas Cromwell in Wolf Hall/Bring Up The Bodies you have to "arrange your face".

So, to enter a challenge that caught my eye, not only have I had to arrange my face, but everything else as well.  This challenge is daunting and my card is very simple with nowhere to hide.

My MFT Merry Everything stamp set arrived this week and I just had to get a reindeer inky

The arrival of the stamps coincided with me spotting the Sketch Challenge over on the MFT Challenge & Inspiration blog

Mine is a very basic interpretation of the sketch

So I have used the Merry Everything stamp set

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers) and fussy cut

Sentiment from the same set

Gingham papers from the MFT Tiny Checks pad

and that's it

Hugs

Squirrel xx

Autumn Harvest

As you may have seen from my previous post, I had an MFT afternoon on Sunday so I'm here to share my second make from that session.

When this particular set was released they seemed to be rarer than hen's teeth in the UK, so it was quite some while later that I managed to get my sticky mitts on them.

It's one of my trademark CAS cards but I had so much fun colouring these little chaps

My Favorite Things BB Harvest Mouse stamp set

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Personal Impressions sentiment

Hobbycraft chocolate brown card for matting layer

Custom sized card base

Love, love, love how this one turned out.

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

MFT Afternoon

Hi all, happy Sunday!  Rather late in the day for me, but what the heck.  It's been a lovely lazy Sunday here at Squirrel Towers, after Church it was bacon butty, and a catch up on The Apprentice (they are shaping up to be a right bunch), followed by a leisurely crafting session whilst watching the Japanese Grand Prix.  Naturally there will be Poldark to round off the day later (grin).

I've had a bit of a My Favorite Things afternoon, which was lovely.  I've built up quite a collection of the character stamps and don't use them half as much as I want to.  So today, I pulled out three sets and got inky.

The card I am sharing today is:

So, this has been made using the MFT BB Jingle All The Way set

Panted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Matting layer is Dovecrafts Winter Blooms

6x4 custom made card base

Now, before you say "that green isn't a Distress Ink colour", well....it's kind of every DI green!  I was trying to match it to the paper, so there was a sploop of every green shade went into the mixing palette!

We had an adventure yesterday afternoon in that Hobbycraft has now opened it's first store in Suffolk - and it happens to be only a mile and a half away.  Now, this will shock you, it was Toad's suggestion to go!  He wanted to check out their modelling section.  I warned him that I thought it would be busy, but wow, it was HEAVING!  OK, they had only been open three days, and everyone is starting on their Christmas makes, but crumbs, it was packed.  The queue for the tills was right around the store.  Toad was ready to leave, but by then I had a "tiny" collection of bits.....

I might leave it a while before the next visit though, rofl.

Back to work for me tomorrow, having had a lovely week off.  Not sure that I actually want to get up at 6.00 in the morning again.  Bah!

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Mugs And Kisses

Afternoon crafty peeps, hope this finds you well, or certainly getting better!  When Toad suggested a casserole for the weekend, it was 20C and sunny, and I thought he was nuts.  However, this morning is cold, wet and yucky, so maybe he's not so daft at all.  There is now a HUGE chicken casserole simmering away in the oven, I've got Rosie curled up on the sofa beside me, and I've got the Japanese F1 quali highlights on.  Almost a perfect day (grin).

Anyhoo, this little make is a first reminder for the Squirrel's Not So Random Challenge where the theme is ONE COLOUR (plus skin/hair/fur).  I've spotted several cards in blogland this morning that would fit the theme so we know it's not that scaring you away - maybe it is just lack of awareness of the challenge.

This one started as a bit of an experiment, but me being me, I made it into a card anyway.  Just a shame that one of the dies moved going through the Calibur.  More sticky tape next time!!

This is Cocoa Nancy by Roberto's Rascals from CC Designs (love Nancy)

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers) and Polychromos Pencils

Papers are Crafts Too

Sentiment from My Favorite Things

Lawn Fawn stitched border die

Die-Namics stitched scalloped border die

X-Cut small square punch

Scalloped edged card base

So, the experiment was stamping the image in Memento London Fog (grey) rather than my usual Tuxedo Black.  The thing with the paler Memento colours is they absorb the colour of the Distress Ink painted over them, which is why the image has different coloured areas of outline.  Her hair was the hardest as the Scattered Straw base just went an icky green colour, so I went over those lines again with Brushed Corduroy,  Her features were also a challenge - the grey was too pale and she looked ill so I inked over those with a dilute Black Soot.

I would also like to enter Nancy into a couple of other challenges

Allsorts Challenge Blog - #384 Colours of Autumn

Sweet Stampin' Challenge - Autumn

So, there you have it, your first nudge that your one colour makes can be entered

at SNSRC!

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

Oxford Blues

Morning all.  It's the last day of my holiday before the weekend, and we're mooching.  We had all sorts of plans for today but I had a rough night coughing and feel a bit limp lettuce, so we haven't really got motivated yet.  Toad has just make me a frothy coffee so I thought I would use the time and bring you a blog post!

I made this card a little while ago but for some reason it didn't get posted, so here we go:

Love this little fella

This is Oxford, a Mo Manning image from Stamping Bella

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Papers are from Basic Grey, I think the pad is also called Oxford

Not sure about the blue stripes, they could be from the same pad

Sentiment is LOTV

and a much used Spellbinders die Labels 18

I didn't have anyone in mind when I made this but guess it could work equally as

well for a new job card or starting university

Hugs to all, and welcome to my new Followers who have joined this week

Squirrel xx

AYLI (DT) Favourite Flowers

Morning all!  Hope this finds you well on this beautiful autumnal Thursday.

I'm in charge over at AS YOU LIKE IT

with our new challenge that starts today

FAVOURITE FLOWERS - bought or die cut

(and remember you must tell us why)

Here's my make

Like many crafters, I have quite a stash of bought flowers, but if I am honest I rarely use them unless they are on special cards that don't need to be posted.

However, as most of my makes DO get posted, I favour die cut or punched flowers as

they are far less likely to get damaged or scare the postman.

So, for this card I have used

Wild Rose Studio stamp - Mouse With Flower

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Papermania yellow paper with the delicate flower print

Orange cardstock from stash

MFT Die-Namics stitched scalloped border die

My ultimate favourite flower punches - Woodware retro flower, medium and small

Card Candy for flower centres

Mama Elephant "love" word die

and CC Cutters Leafy Branch die

The sponsor of this challenge is

All Dressed Up.

2 digital images of winners choice

from Wendy’s Etsy shop

All Dressed Up Challenge Blog.

So, time to get floral, see you there petals!

Hugs

Squirrel xx

Going Crackers (Christmas, of course)

Afternoon all, hope this finds you well.  It finds me sneezing and snuffling, but what else would you expect now that I am on holiday from work.  Grrrrrrr.

Anyhoo, I haven't used many of my Lili of the Valley stamps since I stepped down from the Design Collective but now that I have started making my C cards I am back on track, and here I am today with a James which I am going to enter into their Facebook challenge, even though my CAS style doesn't suit the Lili look apparently.  My stamps, I'll use them how I want!

So, this is James with Christmas Cracker

Painted with Distress Inks (ReInkers)

Clearly Besotted sentiment

Crealies stitched rectangle die

MFT Die-Namics chevron die

Moss green Bazzil cardstock

Custome sized card base

and that's it, sweet and simple.

Feeling much happier now I have seen the Malaysian GP and Rosberg has stretched his lead over Hamilton by 23 points.  Good result for Jenson too on his 300th race start!

Hugs to all

Squirrel xx

SNSRC #2 (DT)

Hello chaps, well, here I am again with another Design Team make and this one is for Squirrel's Not So Random Challenge #2 that went live today at 8.00am.  It's the post before this one if you want to scroll back, or I shall add the link to the sidebar shortly.

So this is my One Colour make

I have used Roberto's Rascals Super Hero Henry from CC Designs

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

Papers are from an old Nitwits collection called, I think, Father Knows Best

Impression Obsessions word edge die

and the stars are the waste from a Martha Stewart border punch

Wonky stitched rectangle die from MFT Die-Namics

Custom sized card base

Quite a list of ingredients for a simple card!

Sorry the photo isn't the best quality, it's that time of year again - no daylight!

Hugs to all

SQUIRREL XX

SNSRC #2 - One Colour

Hello Nutters, it's 1st October, so it is the start of Squirrel's Not-So-Random Challenge No 2, and this time the theme is:

ONE COLOUR

(plus skin/hair/fur)

Before I show you what the Little Acorns have made, I need to announce the Winner from Challenge No 1 (Anything Goes) and that honour goes to

Little Lucy's Handmade Cards

Congratulations!

Please email me, Squirrel, to claim your prize

Thank you to everyone who entered, we were blown away by your fantastic makes, so you can't let the quality slip for this one!

Here is what the Little Acorns have been up to in between nutty snacks.

Nutty Annette

Nutty Becky

Nutty Jayne

Nutty Squirrel (that's me)

Nutty Sue

We hope this fires up your imagination as to how much fun can be had with one colour

This challenge will run until the end of November, so, as usual, you have two months to enter, and you can enter twice.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

Hugs to All

Squirrel and The Little Acorns

xx

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