Merry Christmas!

I needed a few more cards, and uncovered these Woodware stamps that I have owned for at least three years, they are favourites because of the bold lines - so easy to paper piece, which saves hours of colouring. You can see how they look very different when placed against different backgrounds......

I want to say thank you to all my friends who have sent me lovely handmade cards, in particular, those who are regular readers of this blog who have mailed cards - some all the way from the USA - I will take photos of them after Christmas (when I find my camera which seems to have disappeared along with the sellotape after my gift wrap frenzy....) So thank you MaryEllen, Sandra, Sandy, Cheryl, Bev, Linda, Heather,  Jane, ......you all made my day when they arrived

Finally, I am stepping away from the computer until after Christmas, I wish you all a joyous, Peaceful and happy day, sending love to you all - Enfys xx0xx

News.......

Good morning friends. You may notice a new logo on my sidebar - yes, I am on the Hobbycraft 2019 Papercraft design team. For my overseas friends, Hobbycraft is our only big box craft store here in the UK. Think Michaels with a British accent! Obviously, I am delighted/nervous/overwhelmed at the thought of this new challenge, but plan to tackle it head on and give it everything I've got....watch this space. I will be continuing to work for Fiskars, and the Fiskarettes UK page is thriving I am happy to say

Sharing a few of my Christmas card designs for this year....as always, mass producing is impossible for my grasshopper brain, the most I can churn out is four before terminal boredom steps in...

But the most tedious job is done, cards are written and posted. My most hated job of the year. Such a pleasure to make them, such a chore to get them out! Have a lovely weekend, see you next week x

Happy Thanksgiving - and a Pinecones tutorial

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends from the USA. How I wish I was there for the madness that is Black Friday, I found that so much fun when we were living in Florida.

Like most people, one of the things I am most grateful for is my family - although, of course we don't celebrate Thanksgiving, our turkeys are saved for Christmas! So I loved this photo of Alex and Dec taken just after they got married, being showered with confetti. I made this scrapbook page mimicking the confetti, by flicking black, white and pink acrylic paint onto the top portion of the page, and added a few sparkles. The sentiment is by Cricut, and the butterflies are a Fiskars punch

Talking of family, Molly, our little poppet will be two on Monday - born two days after my birthday, which is today...she is a joy!

Quite a few of you asked for instructions on how to make the pinecone ornament, here is a quick photo tutorial for you - I hope it makes sense.

You need a polystyrene/foam ball, some pins, and patterned Christmas paper - I used plain and pattern as you can see from the final photo, but they can be made in just one paper if you prefer. Cut the paper into 1" squares

Fold each square as shown below

Now pin the first four shapes as shown

Following the 'seam' on the pinned down layer, pin your next shapes about 1/2" down the ball

But this time, you only pin the bottom piece to secure, and leave the point unpinned. Add more squares in the same way in the spaces you can see (this is where I used a contrast paper). Now follow that first row as a pattern all the way down the ball, dropping each consecutive row by around 1/2". So each row will have eight points

When you are about halfway down, pin a length of ribbon on each side of the ball, allowing enough ribbon to form a loop at the top of the ball, carry on pinning your papers over this ribbon. When all your ball is covered, complete with more ribbon tied in a loopy bow. I find organza ribbon works best, rather than a stiff ribbon

Do share if you make some of these, I would love to see. Enjoy your weekend and if you are recovering from an excess of turkey and green bean casserole, I hope you have a restful time xx

Deck the Halls......

I have a stall in the craft fair being held at our local village hall this year, so I have been having fun making ornaments. These first ones were made with half of one of those clear plastic baubles you can buy, I built up a little scene using Memory Box dies, and added some fake snow and glitter....

Then some of my favourite paper pinecone ornaments, I haven't made any of these for years, I forgot how much I love them!

I also made these fabric quilted ornaments, Definitely to be given away to the family rather than the craft stall - if I worked out the cost and time, people would need to take out a second mortgage to buy one 😂

But I enjoyed making these gift tags. a bit of texture paste, some funky handcut trees.....

 So many absorbing ideas for Christmas makes....I enjoy making this type of stuff more than cards at this time of year. But I am a grasshopper and leap from project to project! 

Carol gave me a gentle nudge that the photos on my sidebar are a little outdated....I had an email from my daughter in law the same day with these new photos of Kiki and Monty. 

Right, back to the hohoho craft cavern......

Back in a colouring mood....

After months of hardly doing any colouring at all, I have been getting back in the swing - I forgot how relaxing it can be. This first card used the Splashing Puddles die by MFT and the sweet little girl from Rain or Shine stamp set. I have a thing about kids in shiny raincoats and little wellies, and I am on the hunt for some for Molly, so the boots and coat were given a coat of glossy accents

I'm really digging out my old stamps with this one, a Penny Black stamp, and a bit of paper piecing, I've always found it a useful stamp for a guy card

 I went with three friends to see A Star is Born. One of my friends had been and booked our seats for the 7.45 showing, we had been out for dinner, so were about five minutes late, but quite relaxed as those ads and trailers go on for ages before the film starts. But we walked in to a hushed cinema and the film had clearly started (big clue was Lady Gaga up there on the screen). The four of us slunk into our seats, and sat there for a couple of minutes before a penny dropped and we started whispering to each other 'this isn't the start of the film I don't think' ......so one of us went off to investigate, she was gone ages, by which time the remaining three had sat through the saddest part of the film, without having a clue what was going on (we knew it was sad because lots of people were crying). In tiptoed our investigator, it turned out that despite asking for the 7.45 tickets when she booked, they had given her tickets for the 5.15 show, which we turned up for right at the end. So (probably to the intense annoyance of everyone else in the place) we shuffled out, went and had a coffee and returned for the start of the next show.
The downside of this was that after we had seen the film from the start, when it got to the really sad bit that we had seen before, we were consumed with hysteria at the ridiculousness of the whole evening, so when the rest of the theatre were sobbing and dabbing their eyes, we were sitting there with shoulders shaking with mirth.
The film was very good by the way. Look out for a really sad bit towards the end

So many Candles............

I have quite a few close friends who are hitting milestone birthdays in the next few months, so I decided to build up a little stock of cards, and pulled out some of my Art Impressions stamps and settled down to a bit of colouring.

They are quite hard to find here in the UK, but I found a good selection HERE on Amazon

Since I am a bit of a 'matchy matchy' dresser, and feel a bit uncomfortable wearing colours that don't 'go', I unleash my inner rebel with these stamps, and really enjoy giving the ladies wild coloured clothes and hair - all the cards have a liberal dose of sparkle on the clothes as well (Wink of Stella pen), and if I knew how to draw leopard skin patterns, these ladies would definitely be up for that! How about you? Do you match, or don't you care as long as you feel good?

Spellbinder Wine Snippets Ideas......Cheers!

I love this set by Spellbinders, called Wine Snippets, I am finding it really versatile, especially for male cards. I am not implying that all men do nothing but sit around drinking wine, but if a chap has no hobbies, can't be let loose in the garden because he thinks any yellow flower is a weed and pulls it up....falling back on a bottle of plonk to wish him a happy birthday seems like a safe route to follow!

For this first one, I cut out all the elements out of black cardstock, stuck onto white card base, then lightly coloured in some details with Polychromos pencils

The second card had the snippets cut out of

white card, which I just inked with

 distress inks 

 I can't make up my mind which look I like best, but I have a few more ideas I can't wait to try

I am on a bit of a mission at the moment to stock up on cards that I never seem to have on hand when I need them - usually male cards and kids cards. I have also made a start on Christmas which
I feel a bit smug about. But for now,
it's back to those Wine Snippets ......

A new type of embossing.....

Those clever people at Spellbinders have come up with a clever idea - an embossing folder that embosses and cuts small details in one pass. For the first card, I inked the embossing folder with distress inks before running it through my machine, embossing it onto white card...I love the white lacy look, and the delicate little cut out centers of the flowers

 This next card was also embossed onto a white base, but this time I used a stencil brush to swirl a light layer of colour on top of the embossing, and added some black gems to the small flowers....

The last card was left white, but I cut diagonally across the blank space, and backed the whole piece with a gold foil - perfect for a golden wedding card. I like the way the gold shows off the delicate cut outs in the flowers 

So the children are all back at school for the new academic year - including a special first day for our family as Max has moved up to his secondary school

Good luck Max! His cousin Kiki is getting excited about her half term school trip - to New York! When did this upgrade in school trips start? When I was a kid I seem to remember getting excited about going on a bus to Tintern Abbey (which disappointingly was just a ruined heap of old stones when we got there). But these days, not only do they hop on transatlantic flights, they also have enticing offers of ski trips to the French Alps. I feel for the parents, it must be a lot of pressure for them, I'm rather thankful that the fashion for exotic trips hadn't really started when mine were at school. If any teachers are reading this, I don't really recommend Tintern Abbey as an alternative by the way (although it may have disintegrated altogether by now, it's a long time since I was at school!)

I'm Back!

Well this has been a bit of an extended hiatus, a break from blogging .....in all the years of writing this blog, I have never neglected it for this long before.

As I mentioned, Mike has had a lot of health problems over the past fifteen months, many hospital admissions and endless outpatient appointments at various hospitals. It has been a bit relentless, and something had to give, so I made an executive decision with the board of Going Buggy (me and the wall 😂) that I would be kind to myself and have a break over the summer, so I stepped down temporarily from a couple of design teams, and gave blogging a break.

I am happy to say that things are on a bit more of an even keel now, Mike is doing well, I am more relaxed and have developed a passion for gardening. I am grateful for many things, the wisdom and expertise of all the cardiac teams at various hospitals, having a husband who is uncomplaining, easygoing and stoic in very difficult circumstances, grateful for the gorgeous long sunny days we have had here this summer, and very grateful for all those of you who have been in touch with me when you were concerned by my silence. Thank you

But here I am, back again all set to go.....

I am just sharing a couple of cards made for Fiskars over the summer, but it has been a busy week in 'En's Den' and I have quite a few projects on the go to share with you now that I am getting back into the swing of things....

I hope you have all had a great summer - it's good to be back! xx

Elemental Inspiration - for Daring Cardmakers

My turn to set the challenge over on the Daring Cardmakers blog today, I chose this mood board of lovely sunshine yellow

My take was quite simple, for my three elements, I chose the window, shutters, and some fresh looking yellow flowers. I went backwards and forwards about a sentiment, but in the end decided to leave the front of the card without one, that way I can use it for pretty much any occasion by adding a sentiment to the inside

The window is the Shuttered Window die by Spellbinders, and the flowers are also by Spellbinders, from a past small die of the month set

Notecard - Nordic Floral Spellbinders

I just love this little die, from the Nordic Floral set by Lene Lok for Spellbinders, it is such a striking little graphic, and perfect for notecards for a clean and simple card

I often wonder how 'fashions' in cardmaking come about, all of a sudden, out of the blue, designers everywhere start using llamas, or peacocks, or yeti .....I mean, do they go to some designer's conference when they all decide what the next big thing would be, 'I know, let's start a craze for unicorns' 

So, for all my friends from overseas, (because my friends from the UK all know about this...) we have a rare heatwave here in the UK. This usually gives rise to headline news, train tracks are buckling in the heat, roads are melting into puddles of tar, (allegedly,  the roads I'm driving on seem just fine), and because of some gas problem, beer is in short supply, but it's impact is a bit diminished this year because it has to compete with a) football b) what the footballers wives are wearing c) the fore mentioned shortage of beer to celebrate football d) Brexit...... so despite the dire warnings on heatstroke, I am off to enjoy the sunshine in my garden, long may it last........ 

What a Wonderful World.......

This week on Daring Cardmakers, the theme is the song 'What aWonderful World' by Louis Armstrong. I picked up the line about rainbows, and made this card using MFT dies....I used the cloud die to sponge a sky background, then die cut the rainbow in white and coloured with Promarkers

Talking of rainbows.....did I tell you that my name is the Welsh word for rainbow? Quite uncommon even in Wales, and I have never quite understood my parents rationale when choosing it, but as I grew older I sort of grew into the name and quite like having an unusual name. Last week a friend from the USA who is a Star Wars fan had been to see the new film (called Solo I believe), and there is a new character who plays quite an important role in the film. Her name? Enfys Nest! I am quite blown away by the thought that after all these years of spelling my name out and telling people how to pronounce it, instead of people saying 'Envis? Like Elvis with an N?' Star Wars fans will look at me with respect saying 'Enfys? Like Enfys Nest? Wow! Cool name.........'
It's just a pity that apparently she is a baddie............

Anything but White - for Daring Cardmakers

This week on Daring Cardmakers, the challenge is to use anything but white - I took the easy route and went for a pretty pattern paper, and the brand new Posies and Pennies die set by Tammy Tutterow for Spellbinders. I also used the new Nestability circle dies, and the Sew Sweet Trims dies (these are lovely, everything from rick-rack to eyelet embroidery) 

I had a lovely afternoon at the Gardeners World show - snapped these photos to show you, but I hope nobody asks me a question as I have no clue what most of them are, apart from being very beautiful. I do know this first photo is Fuschia.........

and lilies in every colour under the sun.....

I bought some of these Allium - I have discovered that I am rather attracted to slightly off the wall plants.........

......like this one

but I do love the look of an English country garden 

and yes, I spent far too much, and am a bit hazy about where I should plant most of them, it's a bit confusing,....... shade, semi shade, full sun, partial sun, dry arid soil, loamy soil, protect from frost................who knows, I will dig a hole, stick them in where there is a space and hope for the best

Basic Shapes for Spellblogger/Spellbinders

One of the new sets that Spellbinders sent me this month is a new variation on their original nesting circles - this time the circles are scored and pierced. Find them HERE in the Spellbinders store.  I was determined not to use them simply as another element on a card, but to make them the star of the show, and this is what I came up with.........

I really like the look of the overlapping circles against the black background, do you?

Today I am breaking away from work for a couple of hours to go to a gardening show at the NEC. I already know that this means I will get totally carried away and come home laden with exotic plants that need specialist care, which means that the poor things don't have a chance.......But last week we had two large conifers that shaded our patio taken down, what a great decision that was, they were close to the house, and the light now floods in, and on a sunny day I no longer have to shift chairs around to find a sunny spot. So I am in full gardening mode, the enthusiasm won't last long, it never does. Have a great day whatever you have planned......