Oh Deer!

This little deer is having a bit of lunch across the street from me! 

I never get tired of seeing them and love to watch them gracefully grazing and blending into their surroundings. They come regularly to my front garden and sample the new tender leaves!  They've nibbled my tulips, but somehow I just can't get mad at them!  LOL!

Last winter I was shaking my head at the way the deer had seriously trimmed my favourite Fatsia tree that is just outside our front door.  A few days later we had snow and when I went out to get the newspaper, there were deer footprints on my porch!  And the other side of the tree (which was easy to reach from the porch) was seriously nibbled too!  The little darlings had come up 3 steps and then onto my porch to have breakfast....awww!

We live on a fairly busy side street and yet the deer feel very comfortable visiting the gardens and lawns in our neighbourhood.  They  don't even seem to mind when the cars go by or when people or children stop to have a look at them! 

They are so beautiful and its so very special to share my garden with them.  They don't eat my daffodils but they really love my tulips!  What amazing creatures they are!!

Thanks for stopping by ~ Judy

Spring Flowers

 

Hi!

This post is an experiment for me. I’ve had my computer in for some maintenance and repairs, it seems my Outlook was corrupted....I have no idea how that happened but I’ve been lost without my laptop for the past week!

Isn’t it amazing how much a part of our everyday life our computers have become....I’ve missed my emails, my friends, looking things up, the list is endless! I’m so glad to have my laptop back and be connected once more!!

Now, I not only have my Outlook fixed, I also have Windows 7 too and I’m sure it will just take me a few days to get used to it. I already I love it, I just have trouble locating things. I lost my pictures in Picasa and before I re-install ....I haven’t really lost my pictures as they are still in My Pictures (thank heavens!!) but I see now there is a feature in Word as well as Windows Live Writer that I can apparently blog with. So this is my experiment to see if it really goes to my blog and what the end result looks like!

 

You probably recognize this card, it’s exactly the same card I did here, I just changed the wheel and the ribbon. I used white organza ribbon and the Jumbo SU Doodle wheel, now retired and coloured it with markers.

Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping buy and sharing your time with me!

Judy

March Calendar

Here's my March vintage calendar to show you! I can't believe that I forgot to post it on March 1st....but better late than never!

All supplies are from Crafty Secrets, except for the brad/tab thingies which are Stampin'Up! and so is the ribbon.  I love this little calendar, the pages sit in an empty CD case.  Hope you like it!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your time with me {g}

Judy

My Pot of Gold

Hi!

How would you like to find your very own Pot of Gold?  Well, here you go!  

I made this little template last year for St. Patrick's Day and filled it with gold coins. This is such a cute little holder and you could easily make it into a Halloween cauldron too.  Hope you like it!

I'm also including my template(below) in case you'd like to make some too!

Here's how I made it: I traced my pattern on black cardstock and scored the rim. Using a sponge I swiped White Craft Ink from the outsides toward the middle of the pot, to give it a bit of dimension. I punched out a gold piece with the Word Window Punch and shaped it with my fingers to look like a handle and attached it with brads using my Cropadile.

Once this was done I put a little white craft glue along each side edge and put it down on my craft table with a book over top of each side to hold it together while it dried...very technical! LOL!  (The white glue is stronger than sticky strip and when you add the gold coins it needs to be a strong hold)

While it was drying I cut a small rectangle of white and green cardstock and ran it through my crimper. I cut the crimped pieces into small strips. When the pot was dry I added the strips and 3 gold coins into it. For the flower, I used a Martha Stewart punch, but you can easily use the flower in the SU set 'For All You Do' which I now have {g} it looks like a four leaf clover to me!

Supplies I used:

Cardstock: Black, Whisper White, Glorious Green, and Gold

Ink: Whisper White Craft

Accessories: Crimper, Word Window Punch, Cropadile, Gold Brads, Martha Stewart Flower Punch, Green Rhinestone

Here's the Template

Enjoy!  Thanks for stopping by!

Judy

More Butterflies!

I love these little butterflies!

This card was easy and fun to make, I used the Lattice Die and the Butterfly Embosslits.  The pieces on the side are from the Lattice Die cut outs.

 

Inside:

 

What I used:

Cardstock:  Basic Black and Kraft

Ink:  Close to Cocoa

Stamps:  Happy Birthday (unknown) and the birthday sentiment is an old retired Stampin' Up! stamp

Accessories: Butterfly Embosslits, Lattice Bigz Die, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder (Distressed Stripes), 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" Circle Punches, Basic Black Marker for dots, Brads.

Hope you like it!  Thanks for stopping by and sharing your time with me ~ Judy

Amazing Butterflies

Hi everyone!

I can't believe how fast the time goes! I meant to post this a few days ago. {g}  This card uses one of my favourite techniques, creating your own background.   Don't you just love these butterflies?

For this card I masked the top left hand corner with a piece of torn copy paper, I stamped the En Francais background, and the flower image in the blank space, then I filled it with different colours of ink with my sponge.  The effect is so soft and pretty!  I hope you like it!

Edited to add: This card was inspired by the very talented Sandi MacIver.  Thanks Sandi for the inspiration!

What I used:

Cardstock: Whisper White, Rich Razzleberry and Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper

Ink: Pale Plum, Pretty in Pink, Crushed Curry (for sponging) Perfect Plum (Sentiment) Close to Cocoa for Background.

Stamp Sets: En Francais, Charming and Vintage Labels

Accessories: Scallop Border Punch, Butterfly Embosslits, Word Window Punch, Modern Punch, Crushed Curry Polka Dot Ribbon, Frost White Shimmer Paint (for dots on centres of the Butterflies)

Thanks for stopping by

Judy

St. Patrick's Day Treat Box

Hi everyone!  It's a bit early but Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

I love St. Patrick's Day, I'm sure we all have a little Irish in us if we look back far enough in our family trees!  I have Irish ancestors and I have a picture of my great, great, grandparents that dates way back....way back to when nobody smiled when they were having their picture taken!  LOL!   They look a bit scary...goes to show you, smiling is always good!!

These little treat boxes were made with the Two Tags Die, so easy and so cute!  I cut 2 of the wider tags with my Big Shot and adhered the tags together on the bottoms, sponged with Close to Cocoa on all sides and tied with a ribbon knot. I finished it off with little gold coins tucked in the centre... three for good luck!

 
The gold coins are wrapped in gold tulle and tied with gold elastic cord.  Once I had them tied up I held the tulle together and cut it so it would be more flooofy....(that's not really a word...but it should be!)

Here's the side view, if you look carefully you can see the two bottoms attached. 

If you're wondering what the heck is in the background of most of my pictures, it's my binoculars!  I have them sitting on my Baker's Rack where I hold my kitchen dishes.  They were my grandmothers and my Dad told me she used to love to take them when her and my grandfather went to the theatre.  I love family treasures and they're really special when they have a story to go with them. 

The other thing you might see in the background of a lot of my picutes is my old brownie camera, that used to belong to my Auntie....love it!  Anyway, the lighting is usually good at this spot on my Bakers Rack to take pictures of my cards and things, so that's what you see in the backgrounds ....just in case you wanted to know!

What I used:

Cardstock:  Kraft and Emerald green shiny carstock from my cardstock stash

Ink: Close to Cocoa

Stamp Set: Vintage Vogue and sentiment from Vintage Lables (free SAB set)

Accessories: Two Tags Die, Green Satin Ribbon from my stash, Shamrock punch, Gold Tulle, SU retired gold elastic cord and Chocolate Gold Coins for the yummy factor!

May your troubles be less

And your blessings be more
And nothing but happiness

Come through your door

An Irish Blessing for you!

Thanks for stopping by and sharing your time with me ~ Judy