What I've been up to

Today was 'The BIG Garden Birdwatch' run by the RSPB, and I have done it for many, many years and it is amazing how the bird count changes from one year to the next. Obviously I've only been in this house for coming up to 4 years so there was a while before my 'feeding station' was established. I think it is even more important this year as we have had such a bad winter, it will be good to see the results.
So, without further ado my count for the hour I chose, which was 9am - 10am, today was :-

Blackbird 1

Blue Tit 2

Chaffinch 1

Collared Dove 1

Dunnock 1

Goldfinch 2

Great Tit 2

House Sparrow 10

Robin 1

Starling 20

Wren 2

I didn't see the wood pigeons or the long-tailed tits during that hour but was especially pleased to see a pair of wrens, they are so beautiful  - so tiny with the most amazingly large song.

and what this blog is supposed to be all about a card I've made.  As you know my scanner is dead and my photography skills are zero.

The image and sentiment are digis from River City Rubber
The card, paper and ribbon are SU
Bling from my stash

And finally I share this I found on a blog today.

Five Finger Prayer

This is so neat. I had never heard this before. This is beautiful - and it is surely worth making the 5 finger prayer a part of our lives.

1. Your thumb is nearest you. So begin your prayers by praying for those closest to you. They are the easiest to remember. To pray for our loved ones is, as C. S. Lewis once said, a "sweet duty."

2. The next finger is the pointing finger. Pray for those who teach, instruct and heal. This includes teachers, doctors, and ministers. They need support and wisdom in pointing others in the right direction. Keep them in your prayers..

3. The next finger is the tallest finger. It reminds us of our leaders. Pray for the president no matter how you voted, leaders in business and industry, and administrators. These people shape our nation and guide public opinion. They need God's guidance.

4. The fourth finger is our ring finger. Surprising to many is the fact that this is our weakest finger, as any piano teacher will testify. It should remind us to pray for those who are weak, in trouble or in pain. They need your prayers day and night. You cannot pray too much for them.

5. And lastly comes our little finger- the smallest finger of all which is where we should place ourselves in relation to God and others. As the Bible says, "The least shall be the greatest among you." Your pinkie should remind you to pray for yourself. By the time you have prayed for the other four groups, your own needs will be put into proper perspective and you will be able to pray for yourself more effectively.

xxx

It's all about good things........

What a wonderful time I had at my dear Granddaughter Lily's 1st birthday tea a short while ago. She is so precious and such a good child words fail me.
It sure was a cupcake fest and I had a sugar hangover the next day.

A good time was had by all and I went hope fair pooped!

Still making the effort

2 cards I have made this week.
I am still struggling to get a decent photo when it's either night or the sun isn't shining. Bear with me on this, it can only get better. :-)

The second card I made as an RSVP to my darling Granddaughter's 1st Birthday tea party which is on Saturday. Hopefully I'll take a couple of decent pics to show you.
Please ignore the awful strip of ribbon across the top of it, that is hiding a booboo! as my scoring tool slipped when I was marking across that piece and scored down into the piece on show....don't you just hate it when it does that.....doh!!
The weather here today is really cold and frosty...Brrrr!!!! Roll on Spring I say.
Take care out there!

Where has the time gone................

...........I don't believe how long it is since I last posted.
Today is my darling Granddaughter Lily's first birthday :-O and yesterday was the anniversary of my dear Mum's passing.  I still miss her dreadfully, so bought a bouquet of flowers and placed her lovely picture with them in her remembrance.
On the crafting front I have made a few cards, not many since the mountain I made for Christmas, but am trying to make 1 Christmas card a week so it won't be such a mountain to climb this year.
I still have no scanner and the old rubbish camera doesn't do my cards any favours.  I would love to either sort out my scanner or have the means to get a new one, failing that a new camera and a decent light box and spotlight to take decent pics.....not much to ask...surely? :-D
Let's see if I can show you something or other.......................

The snow we had this year, very, very cold weather and snow and ice that lasted weeks

 The problems I have taking pics of cards :-/ this is Lily's birthday card as you probably have worked out for yourself. ..lol!!

 An even worse pic of the inside...under the fairy which is encrusted with pink gems which you can't see  are the words 'Sugar and Spice' and under the butterfly is an oval embossed nestie for me to write  on

 This is a card I made for the forum's first comp of the year, the theme of  which was 'New'...we had to use something from our stash which was either new for Christmas or something we hadn't used yet.  I used 2 Clarity stamps which I've had for ages and never shown an inkpad to.  The tailor's dummy by Clarity had a stand but instead of inking that part I used the 2nd Clarity stamp which says 'Feminine' and mirrored 2 imaged together to form the stand if you know what I mean!  The sentiment is an old SU stamp

 Now this boy has adopted me.....he is one of the local strays, but the weather was so bad this winter that he decided he like me and my house and my 2 boys tolerate him quite well.....and now we are 3..lol!!  I call him 'Splot' :-D

Let's see if I can keep this up.
Watch this space...or not....as is your fancy.
Bye for now
 xxxx

Summer has arrived...........

.............and a certain zest for life may not be far off.
I have made a few cards over the past few weeks, but my computer was out of action and being repaired for 10 days. Since I have had it back my printer and scanner do not work and I can't for the life of me get it running again.
As you know from previous post my camera technique is rather less than perfect, having a very old 1.3mp camera!!!
The garden has sprung to life and a blackbird has decided my overgrown climbing rose around my back door is the ideal spot to make her nest...it's only about 4 feet from the ground so am on tenterhooks and trying not to worry too much about the amount of stray cats that wander through the garden. My own 2 are definitely past it, especially Dexter who has one front leg and most of his useful teeth missing ..lol!!
I am not joining in any card blog comps as my artistic bent is definitely that....bent!!
I miss all my blog hopping and camaraderie but my mind can't handle it at the moment. I am waiting for a hospital appointment to come around which will, more than likely, end in surgery...........wimmins' things :-/
So until I venture this way again I will leave you with a couple of 'photos' taken over the past few weeks.
I love you and leave you 'til then....xx

3-legged Dexter loving the sun....notice box of finished cards behind him...:-)

Good ol' Murphy, oblivious to most things!

Me (bottom right) and the cousins in April celebrating one of their birthdays.  We always have lovely lunches out.  Seems so mad that we are all the top tier of the family tree now with all the parents, aunts and uncles passed on.

These narcissi are called 'Jenny' and are so beautiful. 

More very pleasing spring bulbs. Narcissi 'Tete a Tete' - I'm not sure of the tulips though.

Mother blackbird was away for a while so I stretched my arm into the thicket of rose and managed to take this....you can just see 2 eggs....how wonderful nature is.

Trying Soooooooooooooo Hard..............

...........to find my crafting head again after such a long while out of the loop. I should have been a bear then I could legitimately hide away in my cave until warmer weather raises me from my tauper.
I will just post a few pics of things I have managed to do during my self-induced hibernation.
I need no comments as I just need to do this to get the juices flowing again, hopefully in the right direction.

The last card is a total CASE of a card by this wonderfully talented and ever so funny lady over at 'The Crooked Stamper' her blog has kept me sane throughout the winter months and I haven't laughed so much in ages at some of the things she says, she sure has a way with words. Please check her out, you won't be disappointed.

A New Year ........ a New Life

Forgive my absence for sooooooooooo long. I just had to have some time out to recoup and try and find myself. 

Not quite there yet and have made no cards to show you.

~~

What I will show you though is my wonderful new grandchild.

 

Lily Wynne Dawson born 18th January 2010

with her proud Grandma

 

Proud Daddy...my son Barney

She is such a sweet angel and I feel very warm and fuzzy inside when I hold her.  It is such a long time since I had a baby around and so look forward to watching her grow and for me to teach her crafting..lol!!

~~~~~~

So don't give up on me, the winter blues will soon be behind me and I can get the mojo back for my cardmaking..

If anyone has any spare please send it my way.  Thank you my friends.

365 Cards Day 266

 Color Me With This!

To colour your image but not to use markers...   :-O

Now this would be hard for a lot of people that have begun to rely on these for a more polished finish.  Guess what I dusted off........................my trusty Twinkling H2O's.  They haven't seen the light of day for at least a year.  So thanks again Pam, but there again....maybe not lol!! the shading is appalling, and my brush was the size of a pastry brush  Oops!

This is an ancient stamp too...1999! made by Uptown Rubber Stamps

2 strips of paper lace

1 strip of ribbon and a couple of outline sticker snowflakes finish it off.

Simply Put

365 Cards Day 265

Simply Put - A Recipe

1 x Patterned Paper

1 x Embelishment

1 x Sentiment

The usual flat bow squashed in the scanner...lol!!..It does look quite nice in reality

Paper - Basic Grey 'Wassail'..I cut around the triangle shapes

Sentiment - Magazine Freebie

Base card - Pealised pinky red from QVC

Ribbon from stash

A lovely quickie, thank you Pam. x

365 Cards Day 264

Keep it to Yourself!

The front is supposed to convey the message inside.

Soooooo......

and the inside says.....

I think the image is Hero Arts, had it so long I don't remember.  I have just used chalks to give vague idea of colour and added a couple of maritime type charms and a star brad in the centre of the compass.

The greeting is a rub-on

Thanks

365 Cards Day 263 - Ad Inspired

Take inspiration from the ad to produce a card

Gorgeous ad and I felt I could find something straight away

 

All papers are scraps and mag freebies the stamped flower is Hero Arts and embossed with clear emb. powder over Adirondack Stonewashed Ink

I handstitched the piece of folded Kraft paper to look like a Roman blind

Rub-on letters are Doodlebug

Colour Scheme Challenge

365 Cards Day 262

is a colour scheme challenge

I found this so hard.  Nothing flowed I'm afraid.

Everything is out of my bits box even the odd stamped images which fortunately matched the colour scheme well.  Think they are Hero Arts.

365 Cards Day 261

Today it's a Recipe !

4" x 4" card

Red Background

Snowflakes somewhere, any

1 Ribbon

1 Sentiment

Oh! I liked this one, thanks Pam :-D

Paper - Kay & Co. - very glittery snowflake...lush!!

Sentiment stamp - Clarity Stamps

White embossing powder mixed with glitter

Versamark Ink Pad

Velvet ribbon

Base card and scrap of red pearl card from stash

Job Done!!

Super Sketchy Sunday

2 sketches followed today.

First for 365 Cards Day 260 - Super Sketchy Sunday

I did the sketch upside down-- not me, the sketch :-D -- as my flourish sentiment didn't work the other way.

Flourish sentiment - Stampendous (would you believe 2001 !!)

Star stamp - Funstamps

Tiny dotty flourish stamp - Dawn Bibby

Ink - Versafine Onyx Black

Cuttlebug Star embossing  folder

Card and gems from my stash

******

Card 2 is for Mojo Monday 112

Nice sketch, not so hard :-)

Stripey paper - Basic Grey 'Wassail'

Image - Download - can't find who by atm, will add later

Base card, paper scraps and ribbon from my stash