LITTLE-APPLEFALLS: green

Showing posts with label green. Show all posts

Friday, 15 March 2013

When Irish Eyes Are Smiling!

Hello, and welcome!

There's been a distinct lack of blogging from this quarter, lately. Suffice it to say that things have been afoot.....some of them good.....some of them not so good..... it's been a difficult week on more than one front......sigh......

Not to worry, eh? It's the weekend, and I've got two bonnie grandsons staying over from Saturday morning until Sunday afternoon....woohoo!

Spencer is 6 (we share our birthday!) and his brother, Adam, is 4 (he's a twin to Freya), and we have plans to have lunch out, then go to the cinema. Granddad has been working away, all week, and won't be back until very early on Sunday morning, so I've got my two handsome chaps all to myself!

On Sunday, our granddaughter, Olivia, will be baptised, so the whole family will be together....it's going to be a wonderful weekend!

I have a little card to share for the challenge at Card Crafter's Circle.......

This week we challenge you to create a card with a theme of

ST PATRICK'S DAY!
(Shamrocks, Leprechauns, Greens and everything Irish!)

Some of you will know that my dear old Dad was a Scotsman, but his family originally came from Ireland, back in the mid 1800s. That's how I came to have an Irish surname, Coogans. I have green eyes, as did my Dad, and he used to say that I had "Irish eyes"......I miss my Dad.

Our sponsor this week is the fabulous Melonheadz! Their images are a fun and whimsical style, all hand drawn by Nikki. At the Melonheadz Blog youwill find newly released sets which can be purchased at the Melonheadz etsy store, and a staggering selection of freebies available to you .... pop along to the Melonheadz blog and see what you might find! At Melonheadz Exclusives you will find exclusive sets, and previous freebie bundles. At Melonheadz LDS you will find LDS and Christian illustrations, primary hand outs, and soon there will be some items for purchasing as well.

Oh, and our winner, will receive their choice of a bundle of images from the Melonheadz etsy store!

Nikki very generously gave our Design Team some fun images to play with and I chose this sweet Leprechaun and the Erin Coin......

The card base is a lovely soft cream (from Docrafts) and both papers are from my scrap mountain.....I'm still waitin' for one of you to own up about sneakin' into my craft room and leaving more scraps, hahaa......

Is he not just the cutest little man? He's poshed up with Promarkers......I've got legs like that......

I used Promarkers, again, to colour up the lovely sentiment and popped it onto a Shapeability die cut frame. Roughly translated, the sentiment means "Ireland Forever".....and so say all of us!

This cute little block is a sticker that's been in my stash for the loooooongest time....I think it's from K&Co......

I die-cut the fence and added a strip of hearts.....more stickers found in my stash.....I'm determined to use 'em all up!

Don't forget to take a peek at the cute and clever creations that the rest of the Team have ready for your perusal.....and get creating!

hugs,

Anne-Marie x

Challenges:

http://www.clearlyistamp.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Clearly%20Inspired%20Challenge Diecuts

http://just-add-ink.blogspot.co.uk/ Just add Green

http://pattiescreationschallenge.blogspot.co.uk/ Green for St. Patrick's

http://gingerloftchallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/gl-color-green.html The Colour Green

http://milkcoffeechallenge.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/go-green-challenge.html Go Green

http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/challenge-260-anything-goes.html Anything goes

http://useittuesday.blogspot.co.uk/ Diecuts, punches, hoarded supplies (stickers and paper)

Tuesday, 29 January 2013

Cinderella had the Right Idea!

Hello, and welcome!

I hope this wet and windy Tuesday (in England, anyway) finds you happy and well, my friends.

Life just seems to get busier and busier for me, lately, so I cherish any time that I can filch to slip into my craft room...........aaahhhh.....peace!

Doesn't last long enough, though, so I'm usually scrabbling to catch up with DT cards and family birthdays, and this week was no exception......it's my Mam's birthday on Sunday (not made her card yet) and our grandson, Harrison's, 12th birthday today....and he's ill with the horrible Norovirus, poor thing.

I did, however (thankfully) manage to make a card for this week's challenge at

TWIST OF FAITH

and the theme is a colour challenge. Our chosen colour is:

GREEN plus

a scripture, or uplifting verse, or positive words of healing, encouragement, or support.

We are so happy to have Bugaboo Stamps joining us with their sponsorship for you! Our random prize winner will receive their choice of SEVEN Bugaboo images!

My card was made using Cinderella Block Sentiment.......love it!

I used a scalloped card base from Craftwork Cards and layered a piece of green and pink paper (from my scrap stash) onto pink card..........

Love, love, love J.J......she has the best expressions...hahaa! I coloured up the ever-so-droll image with Promarkers, including the ickle bitty-bits inside the letters, cut it out with pinking scissors leaving a white border which I then coloured, and edged the pointy bits with black marker.........Would love to know if you agree with the sentiment!

I pinched this lovely sentiment from another set.....follow the dots........

The second part of the sentiment is on the inside.....stay tuned for the story behind it.......

Many years ago, the only cutting tool that I owned was a Quikutz and the pretty shoe die is from one of the sets I bought at the time....works just as well in my Big Shot, now....yaaaaay! After cutting, I popped the shoe into my SU embossing folder (Trellis), inked the edges with black marker, and popped a couple of teeny pink pearls onto the strap.....the shoe is size 5 and fits me perfectly...hahaaa!

So, what's the story? Well.......my DD #2 was my heaviest baby (by 2 ounces) when she was born.....10 pounds 2 ounces....but, I have to say, the easiest birth by far. She was always much taller than her peers......oh, the stories I could tell!.....but she also had HUGE feet.....poor girlie.

It was a very much loathed task whenever it was time to buy her new shoes because she not only had long feet, but they were wide, too.

We always, always had to expect at least a week of trawling around the nearest towns, trying to find something that would fit. My poor girl hardly ever got a choice of pretty shoes......nope......had to make do with whatever we could find to fit!

Things came to a horrid head when she started at high school.......11 years old, size 7 feet, wide fitting.....and the school uniform called for black lace-up shoes....aarrgghh!

We trawled the usual shops, and even went to stores 30 miles away, but couldn't find anything remotely suitable.....this was before the days of Internet searches or shopping......and we were both often in tears.

I had absolutely no other choice than to take my very feminine, tall and slender 11 year old girl to the men's department of Mark's and Spencer to buy a pair of black lace-up brogues!!!!

There's more to the story, but it could turn into a novel if I don't cut it short...heehee....soooooo.....ever after this awful experience, when it came time to buy her a new pair of shoes, my beautiful girl and I would kneel and pray, asking for a pretty pair of shoes that would fit perfectly.....and we would always find them.

That tall and slender 11 year old will turn 38 in February. She is the tallest of my girls, very graceful, soft-spoken, slow to anger, and one of the gentlest people I know. She is a treasure to me........and she has the prettiest shoes she could wish for.....a lot of 'em!

This card will be for her birthday.

Please take a look at all the other GREEN creations that my Teamies have made....lots of gorjusness goin' on, there!

This is my Gillian in Central Park, New York, during our wonderful trip, last year....love this photo....love this girl!

hugs,

Anne-Marie x

Challenges:

http://canyoudigiit.com/blog/ Green

http://creativecardcrew.blogspot.co.uk/ Girly

http://tuesdayalchemy.blogspot.co.uk/ Anything goes

Friday, 25 January 2013

Fairy delightful.....

Hi, and welcome!

It sees to have been one of those loooong weeks when I have been busy-busy, but don't really seem to have achieved much.....sigh......BUT....I did get to see the brilliant Les Miserables......twice!

What a surprise to hear the gorgeous voice Russell Crowe has!!

When he sang the evocative "Stars", I almost melted with delight.....ahemmm!

I read the book when was 16 years old and it had a profound effect on me. I also remember seeing an old film, and went to see the stage production when it was launched, 27 years ago. It was wonderful to see Colm Wilkinson, who first brought us the character of Jean Valjean to the stage, playing the Bishop in the film.

I often shed tears during the film....but was brought to a drippin', sobbin' state when I heard one of the closing lines.....

"To love another person is to see the face of God."

Oh, my!

Anyway, it's Friday......hooray!.....and there's another challenge going on at

Card Crafter's Circle

The theme this week is

GREEN AND YELLOW

and we are so pleased to have one of our favourite sponsors back with us

Milk Coffee will provide a generous 5 images to our randomly drawn winner.....you'll have loads of fun trying to choose from so many!

I made a girlie card with the very pretty Tiffany Fairy......

I love green! I started with a white card base and layered on some green Raspberry Road paper. I cut the doily shape with a Nestie from a piece of Nitwits paper.............

A very pensive little fairy, lol.....I used a mixture of Spectrum Noir and Promarkers to colour her up and added some sparkle to her hair, wings and the flowers......I haven't fussy-cut for a while, so this made a nice change........

The sweet sentiment was cut from another freebie page of sentiments. I added some teeny pearls to the corners and put a piece of green mesh behind......