Saturday, June 26, 2010

Birthday Book

A very quick note
A couple of people have asked for instructions on how to make this so I'll get some photos sorted out and post the project as soon as I can.

There you go - I said it would be quick! hehe

Friday, June 25, 2010

Halfway there....Candy Winner and More Candy!

Here we are enjoying lovely warm sunshine (if not the associated hay fever symptoms) and what does Keryn do to us Daring Cardmakers this week?  She reminds us that it's not so warm elsewhere!
Now it's my turn (Keryn) to announce the Dare for the week.  As it's rather cold over in the Southern Hemisphere right now I want you to share in the chill.  Make your cards using the theme of 'Ice and Snow'.  You could showcase winter sports, icy colours or even icy emotions on your card and it would fit the theme beautifully. 
 The thing is, I just wish I hadn't also noticed the date of this dare - it's the 25th of June today, which means that in exactly 6 months time....No I just can't bring myself to say it!

Now, I do a bit of blog-hopping whenever I get the chance and it seems to me that for some people C-word has never gone away - I come across C-word cards every week and they definitely send shivers down my spine.  But a challenge is a challenge and I duly made a card with snowflakes on it - I'll show you that in a minute.  The thing is, I just couldn't get a decent photo of it so even though for once I was ahead of schedule and had my card made by Wednesday lunchtime it's not the card on the DCM blog today.  Instead I made something else yesterday afternoon and took my inspiration from the word "Ice" in the challenge title.

Tiny ice cream cones cut with my Craft Robo using one of the June Crafty Templates
Pink Stardream card blank (Woodward PDA)
Brown Bazzill strip embossed with Cuttlebug Distressed Stripes
Gorgeous Spotty ribbon from stash
Tiny gems (Anita's)
Sentiment is pc generated using Ice Age D font (just to keep the theme going hehe)

So next is the first card I made - it looks a lot better in real life, but despite trying different camera settings, lighting, backcloths etc, this is the best of the 30 photos of the darned thing I took. 
White C6 Easel card
Turquoise Bazzill 
White Bazill embossed (though you can barely tell) with Cuttlebug Snowflakes folder on upper and lower sections
Turquoise, Silver and White glitter card
Dies used:  2 x Spellbinders sets, Cuttlebug small snowflakes
MS snowflake punch
Turquoise thread for wrapping
Turquoise & White Snowflake ribbon along lower edge

The DT have come up with some great ways to interpret the "Snow and Ice" theme this week, so please don't miss out on visiting the BLOG and seeing them - we hope lots of people will join in and take up the challenge this week.

This morning I've checked and double checked all the comments on my blog over this week.  I have blog candy to give away and I asked people to leave a comment on each post I made over the week.  There were lots of comments on all the posts, but in the end I came up with 9 people who left one on each of the posts.  I made a list and assigned a number to each one of you, then used the random.org picker to select one number - which turned out to be number 6.  Consulting my list I found that the name matching number 6 was KATH - so Kath, you have won my Nikki Sivils goody bag.  If you email me your address, I'll get it in the post to you asap.

As we have several prizes to give away on the DCM Blog, we'll add them in a new post over there just as soon as the winners are drawn and we've checked that our "3 Little Rules" were complied with.  Please bear with us while we get it all sorted out!

Thanks to everyone who joined in, I wish I could give every one of you a prize because all the comments I get on here are so appreciated.  I love it so much that I've decided to offer more blog candy today.  If you leave a comment on this post, you could win the little birthday book I showed yesterday
This will be open all week and I'll draw a winner next Friday.  Good Luck!

Thursday, June 24, 2010

Bee is for Birthday

*Last day for joining in my Blog Candy.  See Friday 18th for info on how to be in with a chance of winning this little lot

Another lovely day.  I was out watering the garden at 7.30 this morning in the hope that the dew would still be keeping the pollen in check.  I do love sunny days, but the last few have really had me suffering with my hay-fever, it's not so breezy today so hopefully that'll help too.
Have you been watching the tennis?  I have the little portable TV set up in the study so I can craft and watch at the same time.  yesterday I had the BBC website up and was flicking between the matches you can watch on there too.  I have to say, that while that marathon Isner v. Mahut match is incredible in it's record-breaking way, it's not the most exciting contest I've ever seen!  If Isner moves any more slowly between points he might fall asleep between footsteps!  It wouldn't have lasted nearly as long if he'd moved his butt a bit quicker. hehehe  Still. even staying upright after all this time on court is a feat in itself.
Mr Federer isn't taking it all like a walk in the park this year, is he?  Nadal is looking awesome - I love both these guys style and as long as one of them wins in the end I'll be a happy bunny. At the risk of sounding unpatriotic, I don't like Andy Murray, there's something in his demeanour that puts me right off.  Ooooh contentious, eh? hehehe

Right back to the important stuff of crafting!
Yesterday I mentioned the little book project that was on my desk.  Not only did I get it all finished, but I even managed to get my Daring Cardmakers card ready for Friday - that's usually top of my Last-Minute-Minnie Thursday list.
Anyway, as you might have guessed from the title of the book, it's a little birthday book.  It's pocket sized and has pockets in it!  The basic book is actually made from one sheet of 12x12, though I've added a cover to mine as I never manage to leave things be!


I've used more papers by Nikki Sivils for this book.  I didn't get the "Willow Bee" paper pad in my pile of goodies, but I did get some of the 12x12 versions of the papers and those are what I've used here.  Apart from the rusty-brown piece I used on the covers which is from "Will He B the 1").
From NSS I've used lots of layers cut from different papers, "easy cut sheets", stickers and just one of the fab burlap buttons.  


I've punched the little bees from one of the papers and used them on the covers and on the tags inside.
The book title is Robo cut, as are the names of the months for the tags.  The centre of the big sunflower was covered with Glossy Accents and lots of tiny beads.
The white Bazzill "pages" were inked with two shades of pale blue Cat's Eye inks, then the pocket sections were trimmed with pieces cut from the borders paper in the Willow Bee collection


The tags are just cut from matching shades of Bazzill, trimmed with lots of ribbon.  I've used the punched bees to cover the ugly staples and to carry the theme through the book.  The lined pieces for adding dates and names to the tags are pc generated.
There's a spare tag in each of the end pockets for notes or to use if any month is stuffed with too many dates for one tag to cope with!

I really enjoyed making this little book.  I love that you only need the one sheet of 12x12 and that there's only a little bit of folding and just one cut to be made!  It means you're soon on to the fun decorating bit. 
  I hope you like it, I'd love to hear what you think.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

WOYWTSW?

*I have Blog Candy this week - see Friday 18th for info on how to be in with a chance of winning. This is what's in the goody bag

So - What's On Your Workdesk This Sunny Wednesday?
It's that day again - the day Julia's ever-growing band of brave crafting souls share their craft-spaces via WOYWW.  I'm sure everyone knows about it by now, but just in case you've not tuned in yet, click HERE to find out all about it.
 Here's how my desk looks right now - I'm in the middle of a little book project that I'll be hoping to finish today and blog properly tomorrow. 
I'm sorry that the photo looks a bit shaky today - I didn't use the tripod and looking at these photos, I probably should have!   
This next photo is just a slightly closer look at the book I've been making.
That's it - I'm keeping it short today - so many desks, so little time.....

Thanks for visiting - don't forget to leave a comment here and on my other posts this week to be in with the chance of winning my DCM goody bag. (see Friday 18th post for more info)
Hope the sun is as shiny where you are as it is here
Happy Crafting

Monday, June 21, 2010

Cherry on the Top!

*I have Blog Candy this week - see Friday 18th for info on how to be in with a chance of winning.
Goody bag with lots of papers and embellishments from Nikki Sivils, plus a few flowers handmade by me.

Today I've another card using fab stash from Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker to share.  Again I've used the sketch from our current Daring Cardmakers challenge (there's stash to be won there too).  This time I've used papers from the "My Sweet Cherry Pie" collection.
The big scalloped background  is a corner from the die cut 12x12 paper
Other papers are from the paper pad.  
Cupcake cut freehand from cereal packet chippie
 NSS bread tag inked in red then coated with Glossy Accents 
Big fabric covered brads also from Nikki's stash
More GA on the cherries on the top of the cake
Ribbon from my own stash
Doodlebug tiny rub ons
I love the bright colours in this collection - just right for summer time (if it ever arrives....)
Thanks for visiting, please leave a message

Friday, June 18, 2010

Introducing....

A few weeks ago members of the Daring Cardmakers DT received a whole lot (and I mean a LOT) of stash from a company we'd not come across before called "Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker". I was the lucky UK contact who opened the door to a postie bringing the biggest box of stash - I did have to share it out among  the UK girls, but I thought I'd pop a photo on here of it all laid out on the floor of the spare room!
Rein (Germany) and Keryn (NZ) also received boxes of lovely stash too.  We have so much that we'll be giving away FIVEf draw prizes on the DCM blog and we have goody bags to give on our personal blogs too. 
The designs are fun and quirky and the embellishments are just gorgeous - we think it deserves to be more widely known so hopefully sharing out the goodies will further that cause!  
There are just a very few places here in the UK that already stock "Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker" stash, and one of these "Sarah's Cards" has kindly offered one of our prizes on the DCM Blog.  If you want to see the sort of designs and some of the embellishments that are on offer all you need to do is check out the DCM BLOG as we've all been using as much of this stash as we can fit on our cards this week!

The actual challenge this week is a sketch challenge - this way you can join in using whatever stash you like and be in with a chance of winning some goodies.  The DT have used the sketch along with "Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker"paper and embellishments, plus a few favourite extra bits and pieces from our own stash.
Here's the sketch

Check the DCM BLOG to see our cards and to read the conditions for entry to our BIG DRAW.

 I sued a mix of 12x12 and the 6x6 paper pad called "Ellie's Day Out" - a really pretty mix of aqua, pink and white with a touch of soft green, it's lovely and girly with shoes and handbags featuring on some of the papers.
My favourite design is definitely the one I used twice on my card - the one with the squiggly pattern running down it.....or is it  the aqua/white spotty one....hmmm, I can't decide!
The little flags are also from NSS - aren't they cute!
I've added some ribbons, lace and pearls - well you've got to for a girly card, haven't you? 
Oh and of course some flowers - these three are made with more of the same papers and I've used the Cuttlebug Quilling die "Daisy" to make them - I only used the small size petal strip for these and I'm really chuffed at how cute they turned out..  The other flags are cut using the smallest of the flowers on the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die.

Now, on to the goodie bag I'll be giving away next week.  I've not actually made it up yet (unlike some of my more organized teamies hehe) but I want it to give an overview of what "Nikki Sivils, Scrapbooker" have on offer so it will contain a sample of the different papers I have (we all had a different selection of the paper pads so it's worth checking out all the blogs), plus a sample of the brads, buttons etc that are also available.  
To qualify for my draw, I'd like you to leave a comment on each post I make this week (ie before the new dare is announced at 10am UK time 25th June).  I'm not always the most regular blogger, so you'll just have to check back regularly to catch them all!  That way you'll also get to see more of the stash too as I have more NSS projects on my desk! You can leave all your messages on the same day if you like - just as long as there's one from you on each post, you're in the draw!

I hope you'll join in with us this week, we're excited to have so much stash to play with and enough to make some giveaways too and we want to share it with as many people as possible.

Thanks for visiting, don't forget to come and check for new posts every day - I promise not to try and catch you out by posting more than once in any day!
Happy Crafting

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

WOYWW? That'd be Flowers!

I missed WOYWW last week.   Wednesday ...well actually the whole week went by in a bit of a blur.  It wasn't that I was particularly busy it was just one of those weeks.  We all have them, don't we?

Anyway, back this week with my desk as it looks this morning.  I spent my crafting time yesterday playing with new goodies so at the end of the day I had a quick tidy up - which really means sorting the wheat from the chaff and sweeping said chaff into the bin.  So it's not actually tidy but it is tidier than it was!

You can see the still-to-finish pages for a fat book project propped up between the little purple box and the wire box that holds useful card scraps - I'm sure there's other stuff in there too - I should have a look, there may be treasures! On the craft mat are the results of yesterday's "play" session, straight out of the boxes as soon as the postie brought them were a couple of sets of the new quilling dies  from Cutting Edge Crafts (v. quick service and free P&P - my fave place for dies and suchlike)
I was only going to get one of the sets, but in the end two dropped into my basket.  Shall I go back and get the other one, though?
Anyway.  Here's a close-up of the flowers I made
The first one I did I just used DS paper and I didn't read the instructions properly so it turned out disappointing and is in the bin.  I then decided to try more of my lovely Lokta/handmade paper, and I stuck the strips together (as told) before doing the twiddling  so that the petals were properly spaced. the results were much better.  Never one to leave things be, I then spritzed with a bit of Glimmer Mist, and also added some Glamour Dust or Stickles.
I also mixed up the sets to get some different "looks" which is one of the reasons I think set 3 may be worth getting, but I'm not sure....
I will try some different papers next.  I'm thinking that some of the more textures ones like Crate, or Black Market Paper Society might work nicely....oh, and what about newsprint or paper from old books?  Or plain brown paper bag type stuff?
I will get round as many of the WOYWW desks as I possibly can - usually this means I arrive at several of the workspaces on Sundays but, I do get there!
Just in case you're still not familiar with WOYWW, and wondering what it's all about - well, hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground and all will be revealed
.
Thanks for visiting, please leave a message ;-)

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

June Craty Templates

The June set of Crafty Templates are just out and available for almost instant gratification HERE - the gorgeous and quirky Crafty Goodies Kit is also available on the same link, but as it's "real" papers, lace and other fab bits and bobs you have to wait a little while longer if you order that!

Here are the cards I've made this month
 This teapot template is so cute!  I've used two colours of the spotty card in the Goodies Kit, plus some plain white card to make my teapot. I've raised it from the surface of the card just enough to fit a small teabag inside.  The lid is hinged using a brad and little flower so that it moves up and down.

 I embossed the top section of the teapot with the CBug Swiss Dots folder. The edges of the "tablecloth" were fringed and curled a bit.  I'm not very confident with doodling but I took the plunge and added a bit of simple doodling around the cloth and the edges of the card.
I found a little silver teapot brad to use in the corner of the quotation piece.

As I mentioned the other day (Friday's Daring Cardmakers card) I really do not get excited about football.  The commentators have me climbing the walls and pulling my finger nails out.  It drives me nuts that it's so invasive and seems to take over the whole of life.  I can't even console myself with a Mars Bar for goodness sake -  there's football stuff plastered over the wrapper!  Ah well, there's always craft shopping to escape to....  And look, even here on my supposed-to-be-world-cup-free-zone what is it I'm going on about?
Anyway, I digress!
I don't like football, but most of the boys (both young and not so young) in our family do, so football themed cards are always quite useful.  
It's the bunting on this card that's one of the June Template Set
 I used my Craft Robo to cut all the bunting pieces, the wording and the centre circle for the " football pitch".background. The little football is a Quickutz die
The Kraft card blank and the red & white string are from the Goodies kit.

 With a bit of luck, we'll see some more sunshine  soon (June hasn't been great so far, has it?) and that will give us a great excuse to cool down with an ice cream.....or three
I think this is my favourite of all the June templates.  I've used various shades of Bazzill for the ice-creams and mounted them onto a cut-down C6 card blank covered with this wonderful ice-cream cone paper from the Goodies Kit.  To give a bit of texture to the flake I've used a few lies of Glossy Accents, and the sprinkles are tiny blobs of Liquid Pearls. 

Also among this month's templates are more tasty treats to make such as fairy cakes and candy floss, some more bunting, balloons and rosettes - all in all, there's a bit of a village fête theme going on!

That's all for now.
Thanks for visiting

Monday, June 14, 2010

Fat Book and Flowers

I spent some of the weekend getting my pages ready for a fat book project I'm involved with.  After a lot of cutting, twiddling, curling and sticking the front of the pages are all done - that's the "fat" side of the pages.  Now I need to do the other side which gives the information about the maker of the page and is supposed to be kept fairly flat so that it doesn't damage whichever page it faces onto.  I bet that's as clear as mud, isn't it?

Anyway, this is the second one I've done and I really enjoy making the pages.  You make a page for each member of the group and send them to the host, who sorts them all out and sends a set of pages back to you.  Once that's happened you are able to make the cover for your new book which has a page to admire and treasure.from each contributor.  Although my pages are fundamentally the same as each other, each one differs slightly from the rest - I like to describe them as "unique" because it sounds better than saying that I simply can't manage to do them all the same!I think a couple of sneak peeks would be ok!here are a couple of sneak peeks
Sorry about the "artistically"  blurred photos, but someone (I wonder who that could have been...?) used the little camera to do some photos for selling stuff on ebay yesterday and didn't put the settings back to the way they should be - of course I don't know where they should be, do I?

That same someone took his "proper" camera out into the garden yesterday and took a couple of fab photos which I thought I'd share.
This is the first of the peony flowers to open fully - it's absolutely huge; about 15cms in diameter, and looks stunning.
This poppy is huge too, maybe even bigger if you were to extend the petals fully.   We planted these a couple of years ago and as they didn't look too great last year we thought they'd failed, but this year we've a few of these glorious bright flowers
That's it for today - I've new Crafty Templates samples to share tomorrow.  
Thanks for looking, Happy crafting!

Friday, June 11, 2010

See the World

Oooooh what a bad blogger I've been - no posts since this time last week.  I'm not sure where the week went tbh, but "went" it did! 
So anyway, it's Daring Cardmakers day again and it was my turn to set the dare this time.  I don't like to make it too easy - after all, they are supposed to challenge, aren't they?  The funny thing is though, that if you ask any of the team members they'll almost always say that it's their own challenges they find the most difficult.  Mad, isn't it?  You'd think we'd all set challenges that we feel the most comfortable with, wouldn't you?
With me, I find that an idea, or phrase will jump into my head weeks before it's my turn and I'll note it down - then suddenly it's my "week" and I think "Whooooaaa, what on earth made me think that was a good idea" and spend best part of the week shuffling paper and panicking that this time I've bitten off more than I can chew!  That's just how it goes pretty much every time
The World is Your Oyster
I'd like you to celebrate all the amazing and diverse countries and cultures we have in this world of ours by making cards with a "feel" of any country you like. There's a whole world of possibilities out there, so don't just go for the obvious {wink}
You can take your inspiration from the colours, style, patterns, maybe the food or national costume etc - rather than showing images etc of that place (though you could do that if you wanted).
The Football World Cup starts today, so perhaps if you're desperate (I hate football, but don't let that stop you...hehe) checking out the teams that have reached the finals might give some ideas too.
 I knew this was a tricky one as soon as I noted it down and always planned to come up with something else before I needed to actually set the dare.  In the end, the "light-bulb of brilliant ideas" failed to switch itself on and I decided to go with the original idea.  Despite a few early mumblings of dissent , once the girls in our fab DT got into it they came up with some wonderful ideas - I knew they would though - they don't give up on a challenge easily!
The cards are fabulous - you can check them out on the DCM BLOG;  see if you can work out which country the girls have used for their inspiration, then go to the personal blogs to see if you're right.
Here's mine
My card is inspired by my love of Greece, where I've spent many wonderful holidays in different parts of the mainland and quite a few of the many beautiful islands.  For this card I turned to the archetypal Greek Postcard images of Santorini and tried to use the colours and shapes you see all around when exploring the streets that tumble down the side of the crater.  
I've used punched squares to represent the houses, blue punched circles for the domes on the many churches and bell towers, and some of Leo's "Blossoms on Branches" from the May  Crafty Template set for the oleander.  I cut them in different sizes and shades of pink using my Craft Robo and also used CR to cut tiny yellow flowers for the stamens and some green tear-drop shapes for the leaves
I thought I'd add a couple of our photos so you can judge whether I got the idea!
I hope you'll join in with our World Tour this week, I'm really looking forward to visiting lots and lots of different countries via your blogs!  No airport queues or cramped airline seats to contend with either!

Not only have I neglected my own blog this week, but I've neglected my blog-hopping too, so I plan to do a lot of catching up over the next few days.  With all the footie on the telly to avoid it shouldn't be too hard to find some blogging and crafting time, anyway!

Happy days.
Thanks for looking, please, leave a message - I always love to read them.

Friday, June 04, 2010

A String of Pearls

In the year 2000 hubby and I took off on a Round the World Trip, we spent spent just 6 weeks away and we visited just a few places; Singapore, Australia (Port Douglas, Alice Springs, Uluru), Fiji, The Cook Islands and the USA (San Francisco, New York)
Most places we stayed 3 days, some we stayed for 6 and for some reason we managed 7 on Raratonga in the Cook Islands - I think it was something to do with crossing the dateline. This is a roundabout way (pardon the pun) of getting to the subject of pearls.  I love pearls and I was determined to get some black pearls when we were in Raratonga.  There aren't many shops there, but pretty much every other one of them is a pearl shop - and you can buy your pearls in one place and have them made into jewellery in another if you want - I wanted some dangly pearl earrings.  After a lot of looking around and talking about what I wanted one of the pearl shops contacted us to say they had a pair of pearls that had been set aside but hadn't been collected by another customer.  They were a lovely dark greeny black colour and were a bit bigger than I was originally looking for but that wasn't a problem.  We took them to one of the jewellers and the following afternoon I collected my lovely new earrings.
They are a fab reminder of our stay on the Cooks, such a gentle, pretty island and rather quirky too - just the sort of place we love.
It's pearls we're celebrating on the Daring Cardmakers this week:
So here we are in the sixth month of the year (isn't 2010 whizzing by?).
The birthstone for June is the
Pearl
We'd like you to use lots and lots of beautiful pearls on your cards this week - or maybe you'll take inspiration from Pearls in another way, for instance the Pearl symbolises loyalty, faithfulness and friendship and is associated with modesty, chastity and purity.
There are soooo many pearls and pearl embellishments around at the moment that this challenge is bang on trend (how lucky is that then!) and we're all looking forward to seeing fabulous pearly creations.
Card A was a bit of a failure, so it was back to the drawing board yesterday and this is my second attempt.  
 I'd already made the paper roses so they were definitely not going to be wasted.  I also recycled the pearly braid, blue ribbon and flat backed pearls from the original card.
Green background paper is from Crate Paper, I did sone pretty heavy distressing around the edges and curled the corners and edges a bit too.
The corrugated cardboard piece was painted with acrylics in pink, hyacinth blue and white.  I had the image of  peeling paint on a garden gate where many layers of pastel colours had been used over the years.
The lace was a scrap left over from another project and turned out to fit perfectly.
 Also used: Several different Prima flowers, tiny flat-backed white pearls and larger pink pearls, pearl bead strings, White Ice Stickles
I think I should have added a scrap of ribbon to the sentiment piece too - I might do that later!
If you think you've seen this LO before, then you might be right.  I used one of my favourite sketches which you can see by clicking HERE and scrolling down the the bottom of the first page.
Over on the DCM BLOG you'll find a whole string of Design Team Pearls and news that not only is May GD Andrea sticking around for another month but we also have a fabulous new Guest Designer who's come to play with us this month - you'll have to visit the blog to find out who it is though!

I've still got blog-hopping catching up to do - but I will get there eventually, I promise.
Hope the sun is shining where you are today
Thanks for looking

Thursday, June 03, 2010

Three Little Birds

More cards made using one of the latest set of Crafty Templates today.  Three cards using the same template, in fact.
This is the version I made first.  I cut an aperture in the card blank then used papers from the Crafty Goodies Kit
Originally the birds didn't have wings, but I took a bit of "creative license" and decided to add some.  I made spirals of wire for the birds to sit on and added eyes using Black Stickles.
The sentiment uses letter stickers also found in the Crafty Goodies Kit

I wasn't totally happy with the finished card so thought I'd have another go.  This time I used SEI "Claire" papers
Still not particularly happy but I was determined now to do better as this "birds on a wire" template is so cute.

I'd got a new sketch ready to upload on my other blog (see HERE) and as I'd not made a card using it yet, I thought that if I reduced their size quite considerably, these little guys would look pretty cute sitting in the oval on the sketch.
I made a Robo template for the oval frame with the flowers and leaves and cut the flowers so that they could be layered up.  The frame itself is cut in two layers.
The birdies are tiny now - the tallest is less than 3 cms high and I think they are soooo sweet!

Of the three this is the one I like best, and as they have a "Baby Pink and Pastel Blue" theme atm I'm going to enter this birdie card for this week's  Colour Create Challenge.

You can find out more about Leo's fab Crafty Templates and Crafty Goodies Kits HERE.  I love the way they are so easy to use and how they offer so much scope for creativity.  Here I've just used the birds as on the template (apart form altering the size, that is) but they could be added individually to other projects, or used in conjunction with other templates - there's a lovely one in the May set which is a branch and blossom template - one or more of these little birds would look so cute sitting among the blossom

I'm procrastinating this morning - I started a card for tomorrow's Daring Cardmakers new challenge yesterday and it's a right mess - so what I'm supposed to be doing now is making something better.  I can't put it off any longer though so I'll shut up, make a coffee and try again. "If at first you don't succeed...." as they say.  Maybe I'll even get some time to catch up on bloghopping if it all works out better today.
Wish me luck