70th Birthday Card

It's not everyday you're asked to make a 70th birthday card!  I used one of my favourite paper stacks ever: the lovely Mariposa stack by DCWV.

Supplies
Card: Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Paper: Mariposa by DCWV
Other: Spellbinders Foliage dies, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet, paper flowers and green brads

Does anyone else struggle to use those really bold patterned papers?  Sometimes I've just given up and used them as wrapping paper for small gifts because I can't tone them down enough!  I think I got the balance right in this card though and as I don't make a lot with green as the main colour, I was quite pleased to get out of my comfort zone.

Have a great day,

Say Cheese!

Today I am sharing a commission for a 21st birthday.  The gent is a keen amateur photographer and I was asked to include this. Here's what I came up with:

Supplies
Stamps: digi (I'm sorry, I can't for the life of me remember who it's by and a quick glance through my digistamp folders isn't yielding any success either), negative frame by Inkylicious, sentiment (again, no idea who made it)
Ink: Basic Black, image coloured with ProMarkers
Card: Crumb Cake, white 8" card blank
Paper: Echo Park Everyday Eclectic
Other: SU speech bubble paper clip, Big Shot and Timeless Type Junior Alphabet dies

I use the four square grid layout quite a lot.  I guess we all fall back on our favourite layouts a lot of the time, which is why I love Pinterest so much because it gives me such great ideas. But what did we do before Pinterest?!

Thanks for visiting today, and happy crafting,

Serene Silhouettes Sunset

My last post about a card I made following SU convention made me wonder what other old makes I'd got lurking in my photo album, and then I realised I hadn't posted a picture of the swap I made.

The hills were inked using a paper mask and then I used ink dusters to add the sunset sky.  The silhouettes were stamped in Basic Black over the top.  I matted and layered this up onto an embossed piece of Crumb Cake card.

I made just over a hundred.  Here they all are, lined up and ready to go:

Supplies
Stamps: Serene Silhouettes
Ink: Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Basic Black
Card: Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Other: Framed Tulips embossing folder, Inkylicious ink dusters

Right, off to go and get My Little Crafter up.  Wonder what mischief she's plotting today!

Thanks for visiting, and happy crafting,

Hello Lovely Gorgeous Grunge

Today's card is from the dim and distant past! I made it at convention when I was a SU demonstrator and have found it in my photos just now.

Supplies
Stamps: Gorgeous Grunge, Hello Lovely
Ink: Crushed Curry, Mossy Meadow, Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana (I think)
Card: Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, silver Glimmer Paper
Other: vintage button, baker's twine, washi tape

I really need to wake up this morning; I still feel half asleep even though I've up for a couple of hours.  I don't like coffee much so I can't even top up on the caffeine, but if it looked like this, I might like it more:

Thanks for visiting, and happy crafting,

New Baby with Two by Two

We are blessed with lots of new little ones in our church and I made this card a while back for two new parents.

Supplies
Stamps: Two by Two
Ink: Basic Black inkpad, Stampin' Write markers in Basic Grey, Crushed Curry, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, Crumb Cake, River Rock, Baja Breeze, Bashful Blue
Card: Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Paper: Papermania

My Little Crafter would love this card now.  We're perfecting a number of animal noises: lion, sheep, snake, dog, etc. In fact, she loves doing them so much that we can't read her a bedtime story unless it has animals in it, and even then she only lets us read the first page before we have to point at all the animals so she can do the noises!  She has a special toy dog who she sleeps with and when I went to get her up one morning last week, she was sitting in the middle of her cot making 'woof' noises to him.  So cute!

Today's funny picture is a photo bomb:

Thanks for visiting, and happy crafting,

So Watch Out for the Golden Tickets!

Today I'm sharing a children's card, made for a lovely five year old boy.  I used some of the Roald Dahl kit I have and it was its first proper outing.

Supplies
Card: Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Paper: Docrafts Roald Dahl Ultimate Paper Pack

As you can imagine, the number of cards I have to make for children has now dramatically increased so I hope this kit will help me keep up-to-date.

Today's funny picture's caption applies equally well to children, in my opinion...

Thanks for popping by and happy crafting,

Kinda Eclectic Thank You

I'm sharing a quick thank you card using Kinda Eclectic today.  One-layer, no masking, faffing around or any nonsense: I needed a card in a hurry and as I have a reputation for my crafting supplies, I feel like I can never buy a card to send to someone anymore!

Supplies
Stamps: Kinda Eclectic, A Word for You
Ink: Poppy Parade, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, Basic Black
Card: Naturals White

Isn't it amazing how cats end up in the unlikeliest places for a little lie down?  Wispa and Rolo, to our utter amazement, as well as curling up on our bed, armchairs and sofa, also love using their cat beds!! I haven't seen them do this though:

Happy crafting!

English Garden Thank You

Stampin' Up! always does the most beautiful patterned paper and my heart skipped a beat when I spotted English Garden.  Such gorgeous watercolouring that my clumsy fingers could only aspire to!  I used it to make up this 8 inch card which quite a few people had to sign:

Coupled with the Watercolour Wings stamp set, this paper works a real treat.  The sentiment is by Waltzingmouse Stamps and was stamped on a Whisper White pennant.  I didn't want to add much because the paper is so bold.  Here's a close up of the blooms:

Supplies
Stamps: Waltzingmouse Say it Loud, SU Watercolour Wings
Ink: Calypso Coral , Watermelon Wonder, Basic Black
Card: Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Paper: English Garden DSP
Other: paper flowers from the odds and ends drawer

Hope today's funny picture makes you smile.

Thanks for visiting and happy crafting!

Super Speedy One-Layer Birthday Card

... and for a bloke too!

Fast cards are brilliant to get made in a nap time, and this two-step stamp set, called Happy Congratulations, from SU ticks all the boxes for me.  It is simply elegant and I love it.

Supplies
Stamps: Happy Congratulations, A Word for You
Ink: Basic Black, Bravo Burgundy, Tempting Turquoise, Pumpkin Pie, Pacific Point, Pistachio Pudding (I think!)
Card: Naturals White

Wispa and Rolo are enjoying getting stuck into some crafting.  Here they are helping Mr FT cut out some shapes for a children's activity:

Thanks for visiting,

Inky Fingers Again!

Welcome to the relaunch of Furry Tale Crafts!  I have had a long blogging break while adjusting to being "mummy" but it is time to get this show back on the road.

I made a batch of thank you cards recently to give to the volunteers who run the crèche while us mums meet together to study the Bible.  And it was just marvellous to get inky fingers once again.  I masked off the top and bottom of the card and used an ink duster brush with Wisteria Wonder and Mint Macaron to fill in the middle.  The image was stamped over the top in Basic Black, and the greeting was added beneath.  Easy peasy and quick to replicate for a dozen.

The fronts were made from Whisper White card and then mounted on Naturals White for a lovely bit of tone on tone, and benefitting from extra stability.

I was hoping to make them all using the Inkylicious image on the left, but Mr Furry Tale said that it was a bit 'girly' for the lads, so I made some with the oak tree image.

Supplies
Stamps: Inkylicious Wild Flora, SU Lovely As A Tree, SU Petite Pairs
Ink: Wisteria Wonder, Mint Macaron, Basic Black
Card: Whisper White, Naturals White

If you have been reading my blog for a while, you will remember Socrates, or Socks to his friends, after whom we named the blog.  Sadly Socks died in January, but we didn't remain a feline-free house for long, adopting two little kittens to the Furry Tale clan.  Meet Wispa and Rolo!

Adopted from a local animal rescue shelter, Wispa (left) and Rolo (right) are sister and brother, and are now six months old.  Absolutely bonkers, tearing around the house looking for mischief, having fun with My Little Crafter.... they are a great addition to the house.

A quick note in case you were looking for the comments button: I have decided to disable commenting. I want to get back into blogging because I hope it will help me schedule some regular downtime for myself, but I won't have the time to craft and reply to comments.  I will feel awful if I don't reply to everyone, so it's easier just to disable the function, but rest assured, I do regularly check out what you're all up to even if I stay quiet!

Thanks for popping by and I will be back soon.

Speedy Birthday Card

Sometimes you need a card in a hurry and I often find that stamping a quick one-layer card using a tried and tested layout works best.  I rarely try to incorporate patterned paper because I get bogged down in layers, so with this card I experimented a little.

The birthday girl's favourite colour is purple which I rarely use, so this was even more out of my comfort zone.  I like the idea of using a negative but I think the purple paper should be mounted onto another layer of card to lift it a little.  Kraft always works, doesn't it?!

Supplies
Stamps: Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Card: Whisper White
Paper: Polkadot Parade
Other: Bitty Butterfly Punch, white baker's twine (retired), rhinestones

In keeping with the theme of experimenting, here is today's feline offering:

Thanks for stopping by today,

Sweater Weather or More Sunshine?

I've used the autumnal papers from the Sweater Weather collection in today's card to create something that actually feels more summery.  I had a birthday card to make in a hurry and I dug out a stamp set, Apothecary Art, that I haven't used for ages.

I coloured the flowers in a mixture of markers before die-cutting the frame out with a Label die.  The sentiment was stamped on a separate piece of card and then added to the centre of the flowers.  Both papers are from the beautiful Sweater Weather collection (which I really love), mounted onto More Mustard card (this has retired, but a girl has to use up her snippets if she's going to play in the Playground!).

Supplies
Stamps: Apothecary Art
Ink: Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight markers, Soft Suede
Card: More Mustard (retired), Whisper White
Paper: Sweater Weather Designer Series Paper
Other: Labels Framelits & BigShot

I'm off to have a rummage through my stamp sets now to dig out some other old favourites to have a play with!

Thanks ever so much for visiting.  An extra special 'hello' if you're new here - do leave a comment so I can come and visit you.

A Little Ray of Sunshine

As the temperatures drop and the nights draw in, I feel a little return to summer is in order so today I have a card that is full of oranges and yellows to share with you.

This was made for the card swap group I am part of; the challenge last month was to make the sentiment the main focus.  I used a layout I enjoyed working with recently but swapped the sentiment to match these bright colours.  The fabulous flowers are from the terrific Flower Shop stamp set, which, of course, has a coordinating punch to make chopping out those flowers a breeze!  I made the leaves using the Bird Builder Punch; I often use this punch to make quick leaves as it's much faster than die-cutting.

Supplies
Stamps: Feel Goods, Flower Shop
Ink: Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, Tangerine Tango
Card: Whisper White, Basic Black, Wild Wasabi
Paper: Polkadot Parade
Other: Pansy punch, Bird Builder punch, Windows Framelits & BigShot, stamp-a-ma-jig

We had drama at Furry Tale HQ last week as Socks finally decided that he could climb a tree.  It didn't take long before he realised that getting down is a lot more complicated than climbing up.  There followed a good ten minutes of him miaowing and yowling, before he eventually thudded down, running into the house at full speed and sleeping off the excitement for the next three hours.  He loves a bit of attention!  Here he is mid-miaow:

Thanks for stopping by,