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