Flutterby Butterfly

Today's offering featuring beautiful 3D butterflies will hopefully encourage Springtime to make an appearance.  We could all do with a little less wind, fewer grey skies and a big helping of sunshine to brighten up our days.  Sadly, if the forecasters are correct, I fear we may have to rely on a good helping of imagination, at least for the next week or so.  To compensate I thought I'd introduce a little warmth with these 2 pretty cards.

The patterned paper squares were snippets hiding at the bottom of my scraps box ... leftover from a previous project but I can't recall where I got them or who the designer is.  

They compliment the butterfly stickers beautifully and, once matted onto slightly larger squares of black and gold, are the perfect size for the cream 5" square hammered card blanks.

The sentiment stamp from Inkadinkadoo is mounted onto layers of card diecut with Spellbinder Nestabilities. Fancy-schmancy flourishes were created from Marianne Design Dies.

If I've read the rules properly, I can submit both cards to Flutter By Wednesday's Challenge # 236 this week as there's no prize on offer.  In addition to the compulsory butterfly or fairy, they're looking for a sentiment ... got that covered.
The Wonderful Wings Challenge at Crafts 4 Eternity is still open until Friday, so will sneak in a 2nd entry with one of these cards and as I've used leftover papers I thought I'd pop across to Pixie's Crafty Workshop to play for the 1st time in the Snippet's Challenge.
Finally for today, is another new one for me ... the Card Mania Challenge where they want entries with Diecuts or Punches.

Pretty Flowers

Decided to be ruthless the other day and began bundling up all the craft magazines I have accumulated over the years with a view to getting rid.   Surprise, surprise! ... I came across some pretty My Mind's Eye papers tucked inside a pile of mags hiding under the bed.  So I picked out a couple of sheets of my favourite design and made a few cards. 
 
The first is a Get Well card for my daughter's school friend who is recovering from recent surgery.  I cut a panel of paper and adhered it to a DL card blank.  The cute bear image reminds me of Boofle and was recycled from a 2012 calender which I cut out before adding some sparkle and the simple greeting is from the Personal Impressions stamp set - Double Sayings.  A few adhesive gems, and flowers add a touch of additional bling. 

A really simple but effective card idea is to take a square of design paper, mat it onto a slightly larger piece of coordinating card, (leaving a small border), and place it in the centre of a square card blank.  Then I added a stamped greeting from a set by Country Companions, (another magazine freebie found under the bed!), adhesive gems and a couple of pretty butterfly embellishments - job done!  Fingers crossed that this one qualifies for entry into DCC410 over at The House That Stamps Built but they're looking for Clean and Simple so this may be a wee bit too fussy.  No matter though 'cause I still like it and it does work for the Flutter By Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes 'cause there are 2 butterflies.

Finally I took one of the offcuts, matted and layered it onto pink, then knotted some pretty satin ribbon around the panel before matting onto white linen and silver mirri card.  A 2nd panel was created from the last remaining scrap of pink card matted onto silver and white linen panels, then decorated with gorgeous wire flower embellishments. 
Following the A313 Sketch Challenge at The House That Stamps Built, both panels were then glued into place on an A5 white linen card blank before ovelapping them with a stamped greeting from the same freebie set as before.  Pink adhesive gems add a little bit of blingy balance.

Am off to explore blogland and see what everyone else has been up to this week.

Back To Blogland

YOWZA!
Where did 2012 go in such a hurry?
It's been such a long time since any crafty blogging has happened here ... so thank you to all the faithful followers who haven't jumped ship during my absence. 
It's fair to say that 2012 was a barren year for activity here at MCC,  although 'real life' was anything but ... being pretty hectic at times and frequently verging on chaotic!  My biggest problem was finding the time and enthusiasm to deal with it all effectively following my surgery. 

The intention for 2013 is to be more organised in all areas of my life and hopefully my mind will follow suit ... so fingers crossed I'll be able to do all the things I want to do, both crafty and otherwise and still have enough time and energy to share snippets of it all with everyone.

But  ... before that and to kick things off, allow me to share just a few of my 2012 cards that didn't get an airing. 
If you have any questions about techniques or supplies used, then leave a message and I'll do my best to answer your query.

Babies

(Kanban Kit)

(Stamping and Embossing)

(Stamping and Embossing)

(Stamping, Inking and Mirri Card)

(Inside View)

(Digital Stamping and Promarkers)

(Digital Image and Stamping)

(Inside View)

Birthdays

(Digital Image and Computer Sentiment)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit with Butterfly Embellishment)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit and 3D Elements)

(Kanban Kit and Diamante Ribbon Buckle)

(Kanban Kit, Pearls and Glitter Paper)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit and Cupcake Wrapper Decoration)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit, Mirri Card and Ribbon)

(Inside View)

(Doodling and Stickles)

(Inside View)

(Easel Card and Diecutting)

(Recycling)

(inside View)

(Digital Stamp, Paper Roses and Ribbon)

Other Occasions

(Embossing and Stickles)

(Inside View)

(Kanban Kit with Black and Gold)

(Inside View)

**Happy Mother's Day**

There is no greater gift than the gift of Motherhood ... treasure it ladies and enjoy your special day, whatever it may bring.

These two cards were each created using the same ingredients consisting of pretty papers from the Flowery Papermania Collossal Paper pad, a strip of gorgeous shimmery ribbon and the inevitable diamante adhesive gems that have proved to be an absolute 'must have and must use' when it comes to butterflies.

This is my first post of 2012 so as a tentative step back into blogland I'll be entering these cards into the following challenges ...

Joanna Sheen Challenge - Spring Is In The Air
The Pink Elephant - Photo Inspiration

Papertake Weekly Challenge - For The Girls or Mum

E is for Easter

Many challenge blogs have Easter or Spring as their theme at the moment, which is understandable given the time of year.  This coincidence is Oh Soooooo handy for 'slowpokes' like me because we can join in with several challenges at the same time using only one card - YAY!
This cute Penny Black Butterfly Hedgie stamp is one of my favourites because it is easy peasy to colour but more importantly, because it's suitable for a multitude of different occasions.

I coloured it with Promarkers and then added a soft blue sky with Dovecraft chalk.  There were some silver peel off butterflies lying on the desk so I joined 3 together to make a 3D butterfly for the corner and used a silver Sakura gel pen for the dotty trail. 
Psssstttt ... Don't tell anyone but I needed something to cover an ink smudge - whoops!

Some pretty yellow floral paper from my stash,
... a dash of plain green cardstock,
... a strip of white embossed dotty card,
... some adhesive gems to add some glimmer.
and a peel off greeting mounted onto a fabric flower finish the design.
So here's the list of challenges this card should qualify for 
Papertake Weekly Challenge #37 - sketch
Simon Says Stamp - Easter/Spring with Glimmer
Stampin' For The Weekend #35 - Easter
Stamp With Fun #51 - Easter
Our Creative Corner - Easter
Rosie- D's #67 - Yellow, Green and White
Passion For Promarker #44 -Springtime (with an animal) 

Grateful Girl

Just got time for a quick message today ... busy, busy, busy!
Here's another quick and easy card ... one of many I should be making to send to all the kind and generous cyber-pals who have been so thoughtful to me and mine over the last few months and to whom I am extremely grateful.

It fits in with The Pink Elephant Challenge #18 this week which is to use the colours Pink, Brown and White.
The papers were in my leftovers box where all the offcuts of paper from previous projects land and good old gold mirri card provides a shiny mount for the DCWV sticker greeting.
The flowers were included in a recent RAK and the felt butterflies were picked up from the bargain bin at my local craft shop last year as was the organza ribbon ... oh and pink adhesive gems add a lickle bitta' bling!

OK ... gotta go.
Thanks very much for visiting and if you have time to leave a message then double-thanks to you.

More RAKs!

After feeling pretty yukky for the last few days with a tummy bug, it was nice to wake up this morning feeling more like my usual self and although the weather is rather grey and dull outside, I was happy.
This was only to improve further when the postie arrived because he brought with him more lovely RAKs from my CB friends and a delivery of some fabby ribbons I had ordered to cheer myself up. What can I say? They were a bargain buy!!

The first RAK was a lovely butterfly card and message from Dee which made me laugh.
You are such a sweetheart ... thank you.



The 2nd RAK came from Pinkpuppy who kindly sent me some lovely papers, a beautiful ATC (with another butterfly) and a personalised Get Well Card (even more butterflies!!) Thanks Louise ... you are very kind and have helped get my weekend off to a good start.

Whoops ... I forgot to photograph the ribbons ... you'll just have to check back later!