Totally Gorjuss -235 - Don't Be Square!

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Good morning everyone.Time for another Saturday challenge at Totally Gorjuss. This week our challenge is "Don't Be Square." Easy isn't it? All you need to do is make a different style of card. If you usually make square cards, like me, why not make a different shaped card or even just a simple rectangular one.

Here's what I made. This quick and easy card is for my brother who is having a big birthday on Sunday and as you know men don't like fussy!

I used :-
Image :- Papermania.
Sentiment :- Stampin' Up!
Washi Tape :- Fantastic Ribbons.
Stamping done in Stampin' Up! Real Red to match the red layer of card.

I'm not sure if this card fits the one layer challenge at Less is More as I've added a piece of washi tape but I'll enter anyway!

I'm off out to a coffee morning today. I usually work on a Saturday morning so I miss coffee mornings although I can manage to go to soup and sweet fundraisers. This one is in aid of Christian Aid as this is the start of Christian Aid week. Must remember to take a raffle with me. I'd quite like to win it back cos it's yummy chocs!! On the other hand I've maybe eaten enough sweeties recently.

Enjoy your weekend everyone and thanks for looking. Catch up with you all later.

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 224 - Use String.

Good morning everyone. Another week where I haven't achieved very much on the cardmaking front.  I did have an afternoon at the craft group but that involved knitting! I more or less lost my day off on Thursday as it was my day for Messy Church. I had to spend the morning preparing. We were painting on glass jars this month and unfortunately I'm not known for my artistic skills. I managed a rainbow and some flowers. The children enjoyed it so that's all that matters. They went off home with their jars and tealights to light at home.

This week at Totally Gorjusswe'd like you to use string on your card or project. One of the girls at work asked if I'd make a 21st birthday card for one of the young lads who works in the shop when he's not at college. I've used a stamp from one of my favourite stamps sets from Papermania. It's ideal for male cards as it has a good variety of images. Here's what I made.

I matted the image on Real Red from Stampin' Up! The image was stamped with Real Red too as was the sentiment from LOTV. I finished off with some red and white baker's twine from the Ribbon Girl.

I've got a crop after work today so I'll catch up later.

Thanks for looking and I hope you can join us. We're sponsored by the Hobby House this week. One of my absolute favourite places to buy some of my favourite embellishments, pearls and gems.

Kat xx

I'm Shattered!!

Meant to do this sooner but I got distracted visiting my favourite blogs! I made this card when I was crafting with my friend yesterday. I also made a bunny to hold Easter eggs for one of the grandkids. I have another one ready to put together so I'll show you them when they're finished. My friend found the templates and instructions in a magazine and she's made some already.

So here's the card. I'm quite early as it's for my (great) nephew's birthday in a few weeks time.

I stamped the Papermania image in Stampin' Up! Midnight Muse ink. The sentiment is from Stampin' Up!'s Bitty Banners and cut out with a SU Bitty Banners Framelits die. I added some twine from the Ribbon Girl a key charm and tag made using the SU Jewelry Tag punch.

Hope Donald likes it. I think it's probably plain enough for a 21 year old lad!

I think this card fits the following challenges :-

Creative Card Crew :- Masculine.
Charisma :- Die Cuts.
Penny Black and More at Allsorts :- One for the boys
 Crafty Ribbons :- One for the boys.
ABC :- J for Just as you like.

I've had a really busy day today! This was my day to help at Messy Church. We meet every third Thursday in the month. Our parish church serves two villages and so far we have met in the village further from me. Today we met in the village where I work. The layout was rather different as we used the two rooms downstairs as they are next to the kitchen rather than the main hall. This made it feel really busy. I think we did actually have more children. The mums from that village who don't drive/don't have the use of a car were able to join us but on the other hand some from the other village weren't able to come. I was supposed to be decorating egg people with the children. By the time I boiled 28 eggs and found all the bits and pieces to decorate them and made three samples it was nearly time to set off. Unluckily two eggs cracked in the pot and I dropped two in the sink. So we must have had 21 children making egg people. I felt really bad when one little boy came over with his Mum when the eggs were all gone. Luckily his sister had made one earlier so at least they had one to take home. I think the children really enjoyed decorating the eggs and they were incredibly inventive lol!

I spent the last half hour throwing unwanted stamps into a bag for the charity shop. There's nothing wrong with them but some of them have been in a drawer for years and never seen ink so I just decided enough was enough they'd probably never be used now. I have lots of other things I'm going to throw out. I can also use lots of stuff at Messy Church.

Now I'm off to catch up with my DT work and see if I can get some crafting done.

Thanks for looking and I really appreciate your lovely comments.

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 171 - For Your Men.

Hi everyone, another quick week and more changeable weather. Wednesday in particular was a nasty day with lots of wind and sleet and finally rain. Some places not far from us had lots of snow and there were some nasty accidents on slippy roads. But on the bright side you can really see the days getting longer now. I'm out at about the same time every morning so I can really see the difference when I take the dogs out. 

But enough waffle it's time for another challenge at Totally Gorjuss. This week our challenge is "For Your Men." Handy for me as I need to male cards this month. I already made one for my son-in-law and this one is for my husband.

Very CAS. In fact I'm a bit worried it might be too CAS! What do you think? I did think about adding something to it but I resisted the temptation.

I used :-
Image :- Papermania.
Sentiment and banner :- Itty Bitty Banners and Bitty Banner Framelits from Stampin' Up!
DP :- LOTV.

I can't think of any challenges for this card but if I find any I'll come back and add them.

Challenge :-
Crafting When we Can :- For a Boy.

I thought I'd show you what else I made for the WRI for Wednesday!

This is my shortbread, meringues and undecorated cupcakes.

Unfortunately there weren't many of us at the WRI as it was such a dreadful night with wind and rain. but we managed to eat a lot of my friend's sandwiches and my baking. I also left some at my work and put some in the freezer. Not the shortbread or biscuits as they keep and meringues are handy to have in a tin for an easy dessert. I have to do this again in May as it's my friend's turn for the teas. She doesn't bake much  but I love baking. Not good for the waistline though!

Thanks for looking and if you leave me a comment I'll pop over and visit you too. I love to read what people think, just lets me see I'm not talking to myself lol!

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 167 - K.I.S.S.

Good morning everyone. Hope you're managing to survive all this cold and snow. It's been very cold and windy here. We've been promised snow but I hope we're near enough the North Sea to not get too much. Yesterday we still had some ice left at our house and nearby roads and I could still see snow on the hills too. As I write this on Friday evening we don't have any more snow although we had showers during the day. So fingers crossed. If you do have snow I reckon the best thing to do is stay indoors, keep warm and craft!

This week at Totally Gorjuss our theme is K.I.S.S. Isn't that easy. Well actually maybe not! Sometimes you just want to add more lovely embellishments. But I've been a bit sneaky and made a male card and you all know that men like plain and simple cards. I thought this would be the ideal opportunity to make a birthday card for my son-in-law for next month.

We're sponsored by Crafter's Companion this week with £10 to spend in their online store. So what are you waiting for? Join us this week for your chance to win this great prize.

I used :-
Image :- Papermania.
Sentiment :- Hero Arts.
Pearls :- Hobby House.
Washi Tape.

I'm entering the challenge at Simon Says Stamp :- Use Washi Tape.

My son-in-law sells Audis for a living and he sometimes has exotic cards home. I think he had a Porsche last year and Oliver was so excited waiting to go for a drive in it with Daddy. Oliver loves wheels! Cars, bikes, tractors, trains - you name it.

I never used to make very simple cards but out of the ones I've made so far this year most of them have been fairly CAS. I think I'm liking CAS more and more. Think I may do more CAS cards this year.

Well as usual I'm at work this morning so I'll catch up with you all later. I've been quite good recently at doing my DT commenting and keeping up with my favourite blogs. Unfortunately I haven't been so good at actually making anything. I have been knitting now and again so if I finish my knitting entry for the WRI show (in March) before long I'll be happy since I'm usually at the last minute.

Thanks for looking and I love to hear what you think. Take care everyone and keep warm these cold days.

Totally Gorjuss 159 - Not Square.

Good morning, and I'm glad it's Saturday at last. It's been a long week at work, but then it usually is! Yesterday was Poppy's birthday. She's 5 already, I don't know where the last 5 years went.  Catriona made a cake for her. But....... yeah there's always a but isn't there! Catriona went to all the bother of hiring a cake tin in the shape of a five and making a cake. I think it was a bit of a bother between preparing the tin and getting the cake out of it. Then her young dog stole it. So she grabbed her and shut her in her cage and she had to watch the old dog eating it. I think there was a broken bit left that she hadn't got a hold of. So poor Catriona had to go off and make an ordinary chocolate sponge and top it with a 5 made of Smarties. Heaven knows how we're going to keep that little pest under control at Christmas. My dogs are almost saints compared to her!! 

I used :-

Image :- LOTV die cut.

DP :- Papermania.

Sentiment :- Hero Arts.

Gems :- Hobby House.

Glamour Dust.

I'll catch you all later. Have a lovely weekend and thanks for looking.

Totally Gorjuss 158 - Plain and Simple.

Good morning everyone, Saturday again....thank goodness. At least I'll be happy when it gets to 12.30 and my work is finished for the week!

This week at Totally Gorjuss our challenge is "Plain and Simple." This could be ideal for some quick Christmas cards so why don't you join us. As you can see I've made a very quick and simple Christmas card! We're sponsored by Heather's Hobbie Haven this week.

I used :-

Image :- Papermania.

Sentiment :- oops can't remember, I made the card about a week ago.

Ribbon.

Can't get much simpler than this can you? May have to make some more versions of this card if I get really short of time lol!

I may have to catch up this evening. My daughter is coming out to get her hair cut and we usually go out for a coffee after that. I need to get 3 Santa presents for the WRI, the Guild our monthly crop.

We had a very successful quiz on Friday evening. We had 10 tables of 4 and people very generously brought raffle prizes and bought raffle tickets. Our usual Quizmaster, was unable to come as he was in Estonia so he asked a friend to stand in for him. Considering he was helping out at short notice he did very well and I think he quite enjoyed his evening.

Thanks for looking and for your lovely comments. Catch up later.

Non-Traditional Christmas.

Good morning from snowy Aberdeenshire. My husband has just spent ages shovelling snow round the house and all down the drive. Then there is a track from the tar road leading to us and past us to another house. He didn't try to clear the track and the car got nearly to the road and then stuck. More shovelling to get back home. He turned and came back because the road was impassable, no other cars or tractors or anything had been on it. Our little back road gets cleared by a tractor and snowplough during the week but obviously not at the weekend cos it wasn't touched yesterday either. So no Sunday papers for us! Unfortunately I'll probably get to work tomorrow. No rest for the wicked! Goodness knows what it would be like if I was wicked lol!!!

I've not been blogging much for a while but I have been busy so I thought I'd show you one of my easy Christmas cards. I made four like this but because I can't make 2 the same I've varied the position of the sentiment and snowflakes.

I've used :-

Sentiment :- Papermania.

DP :- Magnolia.

Snowflakes :- Martha Stewart punches.

Card candy :- Craftwork Cards.

Glitter.

Challenges for this card :-

Cupcake :- Non-traditional Christmas.

Stampin for the weekend :- Christmas.

Allsorts :- Anything goes.

Thanks for looking, I'm off to investigate a big pot of potato soup. Maybe get some more crafting done this afternoon. My younger daughter phoned for a moan and held me up for about an hour lol! Snow seems to be causing her all sorts of problems in Aberdeen too.

In the Garden.

Good evening everyone. Here I am with rather a late entry for a couple of challenges! It's been a bad week because I had to work an extra morning and then on my day off I got sidetracked trying to tidy up some of my stash!!

I used :-

Image :- Penny Black from the hugs! set.

DP :- Papermania Rose Garden (again - I love it!)

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Flowers :- Prima.

Pearls :- Prima e.line.

Jewels from stash.

Martha Stewart punch.

I am going to enter the following challenges:-

Sketch Saturday :- Sketch.

Penny Black :- In the garden.

Quixotic :- Go wild - feature animals.

Crafty Cardmakers :- Most and least favourite colours. Most - pink and least - green. I don't really dislike green that much it's just a colour I rarely wear or use.

Cupcake :- Summer delights.

Charisma Cardz :- Flowers.

Paperplay :- Flowers and sparkle.

Stampin for the weekend :- Summer.

I'd best go and finish my scheduled post for Totally Gorjuss now. Hope you can join us this week, we have a prize on offer as usual and I know my talented teamies have some gorgeous cards to inspire you.

Enjoy your weekend,

Kat xx

Sugar Bowl 34.

Hello everyone just a quick post with my entry for the Sugar Bowl challenge. Late as usual lol! But I have an excuse as after all the decorating at the weekend and on Monday this is the first chance I've had to do anything. I've managed to catch up with my DT work so hopefully tomorrow I can do a lot of crafting. But....and there's always a but isn't there? My younger daughter went to her sister's on Monday and came back with the dog on Tuesday as they are going on holiday. She's a great dog but a bit nutty. She's a yellow Lab and she gets on fine with my Lab. Unfortunately she has a bit of a health problem and has to have Hills dog food which is pretty expensive. Not even just the normal food but one from their range of prescription foods. Catriona ordered it last Wednesday and expected to get it on Thursday. Needless to say it came today and she is 2-3 hours drive away. So I had to phone our vet's and ask them to order it and I'll need to go and get it tomorrow. So I hope I can just go in there and straight back. I may nip in to Tesco as Kath has a great idea for storing clear stamps in folders which I might be able to get in my local store. I should have some of my university folders but I don't know where!!

Any way enough waffle. Sorry about the quality of the photo it looks a bit pale. Not easy to get a decent picture at night.

I used:-

DP :- Papermania rose garden.

Image :- Birthday Maggie.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers, Sakura clear glitter gel pen and clear gel pen (shiny shoes).

Flowers punched with EK Success retro punches.

Pearls from stash.

That's it then, not a lot to it and probably not one of my best. Not sure I've done justice to Tiet's lovely sketch with all it's layers. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with some more cards. There are a few challenges I'd like to enter before I have to think about more decorating lol!!

Kat xx

Sweet Princess!

Hi everyone I'm having a spot of deja vu here. I've already written most of this post and then it vanished. I'm not a happy bunny as you can imagine as I have lots to do!! I've made this card this morning in spite of the fact that I need to get 2 DT cards made lol! But I've been wanting to use this sweet princess.

I've used :-

Image :- Princess Tilda.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers, Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

Flowers :- Wild Orchid Crafts.

DP :- Papermania rose garden.

Stickles.

Pearls :- the Hobby House.

Glittery gems, ribbons and charm from stash.

I'm going to enter a few challenges with this card :-

Just Magnolia :- Anything goes.

Magnolia Down Under :- Charm/s.

Totally Papercrafts :- 4 embellishments, 3 papers, 2 ribbons and 1 image.

Stamp Something :- Charm/s.

Friday Sketchers :- Sketch.

I hope I've got the 4 embellishments part right for Totally Papercrafts. I'm a bit confused about whether it is 4 of one embellishment or 4 different embellishments. So I've used 4 pearls and 4 jewels. But as well as these 2 embellishments I've also got flowers and a charm ie 4 different embellishments.

Now I'd best get on with my DT cards. I always mean to be organised earlier in the week but somehow it never happens. I was really looking forward to having the day off next Monday for the bank holiday but somehow I think I'm going to be busy doing other things like decorating lol!

Hope you're all having a lovely day. Here it is really nice but apparently the weather will be back to normal tomorrow!

Kat xx

Just Magnolia 51.

Good afternoon everyone. Hope it's better than the morning has been!

Started off ok! I was just innocently emptying the dishwasher when disaster struck. I picked up a glass and the next thing it was in a thousand pieces all over the dishwasher and the floor. Of course the dogs were in the kitchen too. As you may know Lucy is blind and deaf so the only bits that really work properly are the nose and the mouth and they are usually on the floor. So I had to move pretty smartly and get them out of the disaster area, feed them and get them outside. Luckily my kitchen is quite big so after a quick sweep I could make and eat my breakfast. I had to go over to work to finish my weekly post office balance. Needless to say the glass and dog hair (Labrador is very helpfully casting just now!) was still in a pile when I went out. I also wanted to post my nephew's birthday present while I was out so then I managed to rip the paper just as I was about to put on the last piece of sellotape. Lucky cufflinks only make a very small parcel so I still had plenty of paper. I was hoping before I went out that one small cut would count as three things going wrong otherwise I would have been a bit nervous about going out in the car lol!

So I came back to sweep the floor...twice, then hoover it and rinse the dishwasher...twice. I even had bits out of the dishwasher that I didn't know came out lol! I just hate the idea of broken glass anywhere. Especially in the dishwasher. And I always worry about the dogs poor wee paws. So in spite of the fact that I was up about 6.30am as usual I didn't manage to sit down at the computere till about 11am. Didn't see my emails yesterday so I had to delete about 50 of them unread. I really hate the way these nutheads send out all that rubbish in the hope someone will be daft enough to open it and read it. Then I had a quick look at some blogs before starting this.

If anyone is still with me I'd best get onto my card lol! I made it the other day along with the one for my nephew but didn't post it as I was short of time and the ones I've posted already were more urgent.

I did the Just Magnolia blog hop recently and wanted to make a card to enter this weeks challenge. This week there is a lovely sketch to follow and the theme is "thank you." I also wanted to enter the Magnolia Down Under challenge who want to see masking on our cards. And the challenge over at One Stitch at a Time is also "thank you."

I used :-

Images :- Tilda and a tree stump.

DP :- Papermania rose garden.

Colouring :- Promarkers and Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Flowers :- Wild Orchid Crafts.

Pearls :- Hobby House.

Ribbon from Stash.

Nesties.

I think that's it and I'm off to make a start to my DT cards after my lunch. My daughter gets the keys to her flat tomorrow so I feel a spot of decorating coming on. Not something I'm very good at unfortunately.

Kat xx

Oliver's Easter Card.

Hi everyone. I was in a good mood....notice the past tense! I took a photo of this card and thought how nice it was to be able to take a photo at 5 to 7 and still in daylight! But, and there's always a but isn't there when I went to upload to my laptop instead of getting a message that there were 2 photos to upload the message said there were 148. Hopping mad doesn't even come close!!!

But enough about my stupid camera! Here's the card I made for Oliver for Easter. I know he is not quite 5 months old but I've made a card for Poppy so he has to have one too! For this year at least she's the only one who needs an Easter egg. I won this stamp the other week at the Creative Card Crew challenge. Thanks again to them and to Nikki at Bunny Zoe's Crafts.

You might think that this photo doesn't look as if it was taken in daylight. This is because it was re-taken about 20 past 7! As I went to type out the challenges I am going to enter I realised that it was maybe not quite right for one of them so I made a little addition of Sakura glitter gel pen to the flowerpot and the bunny's bow!

This is just a quick fun card but I think it fits a few challenges.

Simon Says Stamp :- Easter plus glimmer - hence my little addition.
Colour Create :- Favourite pastels plus Easter.
Paperplay :- Easter.
Fussy and Fancy :- Easter.
Easy Craft Projects :-Easter.
High Hopes :- Gems or pearls.
Truly Scrumptious :- Sketch.
Stamp Something :-Doodle something. I doodled round the image.
Pile it on :- Animal-riffic.

What I used :-

Image :- High Hopes - Tulip Bunny.

Sentiment :- Craftwork Cards.

Colouring :- Promarkers and Sakura clear glitter gel pen.

DP :- Papermania pastel stack.

Nesties.

Flat back pearls from Hobby House.

Spotty ribbon, button and string from stash.

I'm quite happy with this card for a little boy. What do you think? Is it ok? I wish the photo was a bit better. The DP behind the image is spotty and so is the ribbon but you can't really see that. On the plus side I think you can see where I've used the glitter gel pen!

Probably I should do my ironing now or maybe I'll prevaricate a little and see what the entries are like for Totally Gorjuss and Just Cute Bears. Well no contest is there?

Kat xx

Totally Gorjuss 21 - Ribbon.

Hi everyone and I can't believe we are at week 21 over at Totally Gorjuss. This week we would like you to use some ribbon on your cards. This is my DT card and as you can see I'm still in lilac mode!

DP :- Papermania.

Image :- Sugar Nellies.

Colouring :- Promarkers.

Flowers :- Wild Orchid Crafts.

Punches :- Martha Stewart lace edge and butterfly.

Glittery jewels, stickles and ribbon.

I'm going to enter a few challenges with this card, I can't resist a good challenge and there are some great ones around just now!

Die Cut Dreams :- Use at least 2 punches.

Pollycraft :- Sparkly things.

Passion for Promarkers :- Sketch and any colours.

Creative Card Crew :- Going dotty.

Papertake Weekly :- Lilac and lemon.

Crafty Creations :- Spots and dots.

Pile it on :- Pastel colours.

I think that's me. I'm looking forward to seeing all your lovely projects this week. I really enjoy going round your blogs and seeing how you interpret our challenges. There are so many talented crafters out there and I feel very lucky to see what you've made.

See you all later,

Kat xx

Just Cute Bears #3 Hearts.

Good morning everyone. This week at Just Cute Bears we have a really good challenge for you. It is hearts and at this time of year I am sure you will be able to find other challenges you can combine with it.

I've coloured this sweet Popcorn Bear image with Promarkers. Aren't they just a lovely couple? I found this Papermania pastel DP at the bottom of a drawer. I don't think it has ever been used and there are 5 different colours so I think it might come in useful! The image is also from the same Popcorn set. They are both quite big so you really need to use at least an A5 card so that is a bit of a difference from my usual square cards. I found some pink card that is a good match and edged it with my Martha Stewart heart punch and added some brown ribbon. I added some heart shaped jewels to the sentiment and some pink flat backed pearls in two corners and a flower to finish off.

I just needed an engagement as my best friend's middle son has just go engaged. I hope they like their card, I posted it to them today. My friend is dead chuffed as they have been together since University. Funnily enough Kelly is from my area and Alan met her when he was studying at Aberdeen Uni. They have been together for a few years now so a wedding will be just great, they are a lovely couple. My friend is panicking now as they want her to make the wedding cake. She doesn't need to worry, she is a great baker, always has been since we were in the Young Farmers.

So girls I hope you can join us this week. Remember the closing time for entries is 10pm on Saturday 13th February. We have a lovely prize again from Kim at Cuddly Buddly.

I am just waiting for an order to come from them so maybe next week I'll be making my DT card with one of their bears. I'm looking forward to seeing your lovely heart themed projects this week. Don't forget to pop over to my lovely teamies blogs to see their gorgeous creations.

Kat xx