Miss You - for Daring Cardmakers

This is the first card I have made for months for the Daring Cardmakers Friday challenge - I needed a break to concentrate on Mike's health. 

Today Dawn has set the challenge of 'Share the Love', see what the team has come up with here , as always we have all interpreted the challenge in very different ways, it's always fascinating to see....

I used a rubber background stamp by Ton Stamps, a US company. I stamped it on white with Peacock Feather distress ink, using my Misti. Then I reinked a bit randomly in various distress colours, just dabbing each ink here and there on the stamp before moving on to the next colour. I used about six different colours, and then very lightly sprayed the whole thing with a fine mist of water. When that was dry, I filled in some of the details with a clear Wink of Stella pen, so in real life it is nice and sparkly 

 

Lockdown musings.........

I am almost out of my favourite 6 x 6 white card bases, but rummaging around uncovered this shaped edge card base from years ago - I stamped and coloured the flower from the Make a Wish set by Clearly Besotted then cut it out. The shape of the card seemed to lend itself to a simple easel card (score the front of the card at the halfway point, and fold)

I couldn't find any cardstock to exactly match the colour of the flowers for a sentiment mat, so coloured a piece of white card with the same colour ProMarkers

 This lockdown business is strange - for non-UK friends, our whole country is in lockdown for the third time. People who can are working from home, pubs, restaurants, non essential shops and schools are shut. You can only travel from area to area for specific reasons, and can't have visitors inside your home, or even in your garden - although who would want to chat a garden table over a cup of hot chocolate on a freezing winters day is beyond me.

So when friends drop by to return a borrowed book or jigsaw, you stand inside the house (with your coat on because the front door is wide open), whilst your masked visitor stands a dutiful 2 metres away, and you chat awkwardly about the weather and other trivia until they climb, teeth chattering, into their car and drive thankfully away

This goes entirely against the grain for me, raised as I was by a hospitable mother who put the kettle on for a cup of tea as soon as your feet crossed her threshold. So for all of my grown up years, the window cleaner, odd job man, boiler servicing guy etc barely have time to unload the tools of their trade before a cup of tea or coffee is thrust into their hands. The problem now is that all those years of nursing and infection control have left their mark on me, I am indoctrinated in the extreme measures needed to fight the pesky virus....... So let's face it, anyone working for a couple of hours in your house with frequent refreshments provided are going to ask if they can use the bathroom before leaving. So a whole new can of worms is opened. Not only do I have their mug to gingerly place in the dishwasher, treating it with as much respect as if it were a radioactive bomb primed to go off and destroy the whole neighbourhood, I now have to clean the darn cloakroom as well. So it's easier to smile and wish them a cheery good morning with no mention of the tea word. This means that when I am desperate for coffee, I have to smuggle it unseen into a random corner of the house where I can't be discovered, and furtively gulp it down before my inhospitable actions can be witnessed by the thirsty workman....  

Reveal Wheel Cards

Whilst sorting a bit aimlessly around in my craft room, wondering what to make, I came across the Lawn Fawn reveal wheel dies and stamps that I purchased over a year ago and had never used. So I made this fun little card using a dragon image from MFT stamps, a sponged sky and some die cut hills. 

I photographed three times for you to see the different sentiments that pop up as you turn the week........

 

But I wanted to see if I could come up with something for an adult birthday, so came up with this, using a Fuschia stamp set by Clearly Besotted. If I make this one again, I think I will position the stamp so that it is complete on the top layer - I am not very keen on the way the flower by the wheel looks chopped off - I live and learn!

A friend from Florida posted a photo of Manatees huddled together for warmth on the Crystal River in Homossasa, apparently they are having a cold spell there. It still looked pretty appealing to me,  sparkling clear, turquoise, water.....and bought back lots of memories as this is where we used to go canoeing. All our friends who visited from the UK were taken for a day out on the river - a lazy paddle down crystal clear water watching the birds and wildlife, and stopping to picnic and swim . Our friends still talk about the experience when we get together, and they all remark on the friendliness of fellow boaters standing on the banks as we paddled by. Their friendly greetings usually turned to concern as they saw the hot, red faced Brits paddle past them, the usual greeting was 'hey, do you guys need water? Sunscreen?......' Clearly the pale, unused-to-sunshine complexions of us Brits stood out like a sore thumb. The peace of the river was often disrupted as well by exasperated expletives as someone (usually me) crashed into a tangle of trees on the banks. Happy days.........

Another Brag Book!

I did say yesterday that I would start showing cards again, but. Totally forgot about this little Christmas album, given to a friend who has a new baby granddaughter 

Made with the gorgeous WinterSparkle papers by Dovecraft for Trimcraft, I had made a video clip and really wanted to work out how to post it on here - I had to Google to see how to do it! But here it is.....just a quick post today

 

Work in Progress Mini Album

 

The last mini album for a while! This is one I am just finishing and is for a friends birthday - again it will be a Granny brag book. She has two grandsons, so I wanted to use papers that were not flowery or too childish. I think this Moroccan Tile pad by Papermania fit the bill perfectly - and it was a bargain price as well! As you see it is all in shades of navy, cobalt blue, white and a soft jade, I really enjoyed working with them

I used a design by my pal Cal Summers called the Floating Spine Mini Album for the basic build of this book, but then I went off piste and did my own thing on the internal pages

You can find supply lists and links to her YouTube video on building the album on her Paper, Scissors, Story Facebook page

But the big news is that I have actually got over my big crafting slump and made a couple of cards. TA DA......

I will obviously share, but today has been one of those miserable grey rainy days when the light makes it impossible to take decent photos

I have had so many lovely emails and messages from fellow crafters who read this blog welcoming me back - thank you all so much, it is humbling to know that so many of you enjoy Going-Buggy. Disconcerting though that so many mention they love reading about my adventures, I hate to tell you that this page may be a little short on amusing anecdotes for the foreseeable future, unless I start burbling on about the robins I spotted in the garden today, or what time I eventually climbed out of my pyjamas into my newly purchased 'lounge-wear'. I never knew there was such a thing, but yes, you can now lie around on the sofa watching Netflix for hours in your lounge-wear. Basically they are pyjamas without cute snowmen or kittens on the front, so that when the Amazon guy comes, you can fling open the door with confidence knowing that you are the very epitome of a pandemic woman, clad from head to toe in stylish kitten free pyjamas lounge wear. 

Sigh, it can only get better...... see you tomorrow x

Birthday Mini Album

Another of my lockdown makes, this time an album for my sisters birthday. I decided that instead of opening it like a regular book, this one would open from the top, stand on the spine of the book and be easy to display. So you lift the magnetised flap, and the book flops open........

Again, there are loads of pockets etc to explore. In the photo opposite, on the page lying flat you can see some tabs in the peach paper. The whole thing is actually six black envelopes glued together to form a concertina type file folder to take lots of photos

 All the papers are from the Bloom and Wonder paper pad by Trimcraft. I apologise for the quality of the photos, I was not thinking of the blog when I took them, just shot them quickly to show my nieces why I needed the photos they had to raid family photo albums to get! It was worth it, my sister loved it......... 

Mini Album

One of the things I have loved making during lockdown are mini albums. This one was for my friend Anne (who has given me permission to publish the completed pages) and is all about her grandchildren.

I built the whole thing from scratch, it's a long time since I made one of these, I made a couple back in my Florida crafting days. I do love them, and try to make them very interactive with loads of flaps - and magnet closures, I love magnets!

So I went a bit crazy with flaps, waterfalls and it was nice to use stuff like border punches and dies. I even dusted off my Cricut! They do make lovely gifts, I have a couple more to share tomorrow.

If you are new to mini album making I can recommend my friend Cal Summers, who is a mini album genius. She runs a Facebook group called Paper, Scissors, Story and does live demo's each week

So if, like me, you are a bit jaded with cardmaking, have a go at one of these, there is something very satisfying about starting off with pieces of chipboard and card and ending up with a very personal gift for special people - I also made one for my son's milestone birthday, and a couple for Christmas gifts 

 

Crafting again.........

 Hello again! I must hang my head a little, I have shamefully abandoned my blog over the past few months. Somehow I totally lost my mojo during the upheaval of the pandemic, making cards all seemed a little irrelevant somehow. I do appreciate all those of you who have contacted me to check that all is well here, thank you. All is well - or at least we have managed to evade the horrible virus, but the sheer tedium of being isolated has been inescapable. I really feel for those who have gone through this alone, those who live in accommodation with no outside space, all the parents with babies, lively toddlers or children who need home schooling. Huge thanks as well to all those essential workers who have kept the country (and the world) functioning.......I can imagine that there are millions of people who go to work every day with worry foremost in their minds, not just valiant health workers, but all the shop workers, those keeping our lights switched on, our central heating working, teachers, our phones a lifeline, our bins emptied.........to all of these and more, I applaud you. So, rightly or wrongly, that was why in my mind, crafting seemed irrelevant. However, out of nowhere, my mojo has returned and I am once again enjoying playing with paper and ink. 

Maybe a dose of mojo made its way into my arm together with the vaccine I received last week! That was an experience. I was called to one of the large vaccination centres (Millenium Point in Birmingham). So off I trotted, hair washed, make up on, decent clothes - well it was my first “outing” for months. However, those of you who have followed Going Buggy for a while know that I am directionally challenged and can’t find my way out of a paper bag. So I get there, park the car on the second floor of a multi storey car park and confidently take the lift down to the ground floor. Sensible, right? No, apparently not, I totally missed reading a sign that pointed to a door in the car park helpfully labelled VACCINATION which would have led directly to the action. Instead of which, I found myself outside in heavy rain and a gale force wind, looking around helplessly for directions. There were none......this was a BIG campus! So I set off aimlessly, and walked for what seemed like miles before finding the right place. By this time I looked and felt like a drowned rat. So I squelched in, was squirted with hand sanitizer about six times (no need to hose me down, I was already hosed), and spent the waiting period gazing at all the other people waiting for their jabs, wondering how it was possible that this was my peer group, surely I didn’t belong to this group of oldies.....alas, I did!

I promise I will be back tomorrow with some photos of the only things I have made for months, and no, they aren’t cards! Hoping you are all keeping well

Enfys xx

New Artwork......

I was contacted by Photowall to see if I would review their products here. I browsed the site and was blown away with the variety of prints available. Quite often, companies that offer canvas or framed prints have a very limited selection of reproduction Old Masters or old posters, but Photowall have a wide selection of really original artwork - thousands to choose from. I enlisted the help of family and friends to help me choose (a good lockdown exercise!) and, funnily enough, every single one had BRUSSELS at the top of their list, so this was my choice, a large canvas of a street scene in Brussels (entitled 'Brussels'), I have this dark plum wall in my dining room and I knew this would be perfect.

Close runner up was a fabulous collage of Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany, but Brussels won......do you like it?

If you really want to make a statement, they do (as the name suggests) prints that will cover the whole of a feature wall, I am toying with the idea of a forest scene in my bathroom

Photowall have offered a discount of 25% off any of their products for readers of Going Buggy. Go HERE to browse the range, and use the code enfyspw25 at checkout - they mail worldwide and the discount is applicable for all countries

I am still a bit mojo-less in all this isolation business and finding it really difficult to get back into the swing of cardmaking. On the other hand, I am now a jigsaw champion!

I can't quite believe that not only am I wasting hours and hours looking for the missing bit of a cats tail, but I am actually taking photos of completed jigsaws and sharing them with you as if they are original works of art! 

See you soon xx

Overdue post.....

This post is so overdue! Much has happened since I last posted - for all of us
What strange times we are living in, I hope you are all keeping safe and well. We have been in total isolation here for eight weeks now (Mike has been shielded by the government, which means he, and by default me, has to stay strictly at home and our garden). I spent three weeks giving my craft room a deep clean, it has never been so organised and shiny. The downside is that I seem to have chucked my mojo out with the rubbish, and now have no desire/inclination/inspiration to make cards. I have, however made a couple of mini albums which I will share later

In other news, at the end of February Fiskars decided they were disbanding the Fiskarettes Facebook page. After five years of running the page and team, this left me feeling a little discombobulated.......five years of projects made using punches has been a bit of a challenge, so in some ways I am not sorry to be let free to use anything I choose again. It has been a journey, I started the page with zero followers, and by the time it ended had built it up to 24,700+ who enjoyed the page. I made some very good friends over there, both visitors to the page, and the various design teams. Here are some of my punch projects that I was most pleased with......

 So at the moment, I have no idea which path my crafting will follow next.....one thing is certain, I will make use of that clean and tidy craftroom very very soon, I keep wandering in, looking around, and wandering out again, but one of these days I know I will wander in, sit down, and get totally absorbed in some new challenge. In the meantime, I will be more of a faithful friend to all of you, and recharge Going Buggy

Stay safe, stay well x

Sketched Flowers

My old friend and longtime reader of this blog, Theresa, sent me a totally unexpected gift of some stamps (all the way from America). The card she sent said 'see what you can do with these!'

Well here is the first lot, made with the Simon Says Stamps Sketched Flowers set. This first one was heat embossed in white, then I just used distress inks over the top.....

This next one was done on watercolour paper, I heat embossed in white again, but this time used watercolour paints (the heat embossing kept the colour wash nicely within the lines.....)

and for the last one, I stamped onto white card, then did a lot of fussy cutting around the flower spray. The partially cut white panel was attached to a sand coloured base card with foam pads -  I also used Wink of Stella clear glitter on the flowers, but of course this never shows up in photos

So thank you so much Theresa, I hope you approve of what I have done so far....lots more to come. Which one do you all like best? I think the last one is my favourite.

I haven't blogged for a while - I scalded my fingers quite badly and it's difficult crafting when you have dressings that make your fingers the size of hot dogs! However, they have healed now, and I have two fingers with skin as smooth as  a baby's bottom 😄 but I do have a lot to share with you, so look out for more posts (hint: Christmas is coming.....) 

Made for Free!

As I have a commission in this month's edition of Making Cards magazine, I got a copy, and the free gift included these really cute girl images. Perfect for teenager Christmas cards I thought. So this is what I came up with. The images were great to fussy cut, and with the addition of a white pen, some glitter, I really liked the end results. Do you?

Here is my favourite teenage girl - Kiki was confirmed at church on Sunday......

and my two darling girls together, Kiki with Molly and Monty

Hobbycraft takeover for a day

Today saw me taking over the Hobbycraft Instagram page for the day - it was a bit of a big deal for me, especially as I am a bit of a newbie on that platform and don’t really know my way around! But thanks to lots of help from Aisha Green, the Papercraft design team leader, I made it! My story is a sort of ‘a day in the life of.......’ so, of course I had to include the children. See my Christmas makes @hobbycrafthq on Instagram 

When that was done and dusted, it was time to have a play with my new Foil Quill from WRMK, a really nifty little gadget that makes it easy to hot foil your Cricut design onto your cards. This is my first attempt - a thank you card for Aisha for all her help!

Rekindling a love affair!

 For quite a while, I have let my Cricut gather dust in my crafty den, but recently I have rediscovered the joy of using it - there is a certain satisfaction in sitting there, watching a machine chunter away, doing all the hard work!

This first card is actually a design I made for my son in law who works in IT (with a different sentiment obviously). I thought it worked well for those tech geek types who are difficult to make for......

Then I started thinking ahead to Christmas, and made a couple of framed pieces which celebrate hobbies. I take no credit for the design, they were already done and all I had to do was work out which colours worked best, and send the machine on it's happy way.....I love the way they worked out

Isn't the next one perfect for a golf fanatic?

It's getting quite autumnal here now after a bit of a washout summer. That means a carpet of crunchy acorns on our drive from the big oak tree, and squirrels scampering about busy filling up their pantry before winter. I rather like this season, and enjoy changing colours on my cards, moving on to rusty autumn leaves after the pinks and yellows of summer floral cards. Do you change colours when crafting according to the season?

Winner of the Hobbycraft Bundle..........

Firstly, a card made with my old but much loved 'Lovely as a Tree' stamp set from Stampin up - I wonder how many of us have this set? It's appeal is timeless. I masked off the sides of the card to ink the background, then simply overstamped the trees. 

Alex came up with Molly (aged two) for a flying visit. We were sitting in the conservatory, and a bee was buzzing around frantically trying to get out. It was hot, he was getting exhausted and kept resting on a ledge close to the roof.
So I got a broom to try and gently guide him out. 'why you hitting the bonbon bee Ma?' asked Molly. I explained that he was very tired and needed help to go home to the hive. Eventually, the broom did the trick and away the 'bonbon' bee flew...................oh WELL DONE Ma! said my little bumble bee lover 😀 

On to the winner of the Hobbycraft bundle - I used Random.org to pull out a number and the winner is:

AUNTY SUE

Congratulations Sue, email your address and they will be on their way